Aliette
by Lore55
Summary: When Ahsoka arrived on Christophsis she wasn't the only new Padawan in the ship. Aliette Ansa, a Healer from the Temple, came with her, giving the clones a new Commander and Obi Wan the student he wanted.
1. Chapter 1

**I really need to stop starting things. Anyways, here's the first chapter of something that's been in my mind for a while.**

 **Chapter 1: Aliette**

* * *

The planet was, well, war zones tended to be disasters so that would be redundant. The scent of burnt flesh mingled with the bitter tangle of torn metal and electricity, the buildings were shattered glass and mangled metal. Even with the destruction and the strewn corpses it wasn't hard to tell that the crystal lined towers and high walking streets had once been a beautiful sight. Through the settled chaos men walked around, many injured. Their numbers were few, their dopple gangers all dragged into piles or left on the ground.

Most were dead. Plenty were well on their way.

Their leaders were among them, blue and brown eyes tuned to the sky and the ship descending from it. Obi Wan Kenobi watched, using the ship as a distraction from the corpse being dragged away to his right.

"Looks like help has arrived," the elder of the two observed, crossing his arms over his chest. His beard lifted to the sky, and the carrier in it in gesture.

"Our cruiser must be back," the younger concluded, rubbing the wrist of his false arm, "which means we'll be able to get our reinforcements." There was hope in his voice. Everyone knew that they needed it, and none more so than those in charge.

"Fresh troops, new supplies," Kenobi listed, tacking them off on his fingers "and perhaps they've brought my new Padawan."

Anakin Skywalker, the last Padawan he'd trained, snorted. "You really think it's a good idea to bring a Padawan learner into all this?" He asked, incredulous. He did have a point, the battle field was no place for the children that Padawan's often were, however his not taking one on didn't mean someone else wouldn't, and in war time every hand was needed. Even small ones.

"I spoke to Master Yoda about it," the former teacher dismissed before changing the subject, "you should put in a request for one. You'd make a good teacher."

His advice, as usual, went ignored. Obi-Wan was a decade behind offense at the hot headed boy's nature.

"Anakin, Teaching is privilege. As Jedi it is our responsibility to help prepare the next generation," he lectured mildly. It was an old speech, one they'd gone over before.

His companion shook his head, hair blown by the thrusters of the ship as it finished its final decent and began opening.

"A Padawan would just slow me down."

Someone, somewhere, disagreed. Out of the transport strode a young woman, clearly not human. She was Togruta, defined by orange skin, symmetrical facial marking and a definitive replacement for hair. Her age was marked not only by her height but by the length of her lekku and the height of her montrals. Only just into her teenaged years.

"A youngling?" Obi-Wan wondered, watching her approach. He noticed the second passenger slip off the transport at the same time a box of ammunition for the big guns was walked in front of its ramp, almost obscuring her from his attention, if not for her force signature.

She didn't run to catch up when the group of three separated themselves from the clones to speak, Kenobi splitting his attention between the one who was, apparently, not his Padawan and the one who hopefully was. She took her time, gold eyes roaming the area around her. Though the soft grey of her shirt did little clash much with the dented white armor of the troops her skin certainly marked her from being human. Sharp intelligence read injuries in arms close to the side, jilted gaits and blood staining what had once been pristine plates. Her fingers twitched every time one of the men was within arm's length, though she never touched any, only passed them by.

When at last she joined her fellow Jedi the Togruta had her arm outstretched, a finger aimed at the younger Jedi. He looked panicked, the poor boy. Somehow, Obi Wan's sympathy was taking a vacation.

"Pointing is rude 'Soka," she scolded, finally gaining the attention of the other two. There was a lilt to her voice, her vowels pronounced in the back of her mouth, well behind her teeth while the consonants snapped out.

Kenobi looked over the elder of the pair now that she was closer. She looked Wroonian, or Pantoran, though he couldn't be sure at just a look. Her accent supported the theory of the latter, though it was too muted to be decisive.

' 'Soka' lowered her arm obediently, only to prop the same hand on her hip, the curl of her lips mutinous. Obi Wan smiled slightly. Oh, she would match well with Anakin.

The elder of the new arrivals cleared her throat politely and gave a clap-handed bow, untraditional by Jedi standards but clinching her heritage. Pantoran it was. Curiously she lacked the yellow markings of many of her people.

"I am Aliette Ansa, pleased to make your acquaintance. I am to be the Padawan for Master Kenobi," she reported. Obi Wan smiled. He had thought so, and was glad that Master Yoda had agreed to give him another chance at teaching.

"I am Obi Wan Kenobi," he announced, inclining his head respectfully, "It is good to meet you."

Her smile was interrupted by Anakin.

"Aren't you old for a Padawan?" he asked.

Ashoka snorted. "I'm too young, she'd too old."

Aliette's smile didn't waver, though it did turn from warm to cool. "I was previously an assistant to Master Vokara Che as a Healer in the Hall of such. Recently Master Yoda felt Master Kenobi's experience and position as a general would benefit me as a Master."

Kenobi could already tell that this was going to be different from his trials teaching Anakin.

"Okay, great, you've got your Padawan, now how do I get rid of mine?" Anakin demanded. He ignored Ashoka's offended 'hey!'.

"We'll sort that out later," Obi Wan said shortly, his mind twisting back to the problem at hand, "It won't be long before those droids figure out a way past our canons."

Aliette stood a bit straighter. "May I be of use?"

Kenobi nodded, his mind already working on a plan and a way to set the new arrivals to good use.

"Yes, I believe so. You said you were a healer?" he waited for her to nod, "Then see to the men, get as many into fighting shape as you can before the next wave hits."

Aliette gave another bow, shorted than her first. "As you say. Good luck to you, Master."

Kenobi watched her scramble away, her short boots barely skimming the planet's surface as she moved.

He turned back to Anakin and his Padawan, settling into his role as leader. They had strategy to work out.

* * *

Aliette slipped into the ranks she had been expecting since her arrival, gold eyes seeking out a gathering of injured.

She found what she was looking for and felt her heart beat alter in sympathy for the hurting men, their own pain resonating inside of her. She took a breath and stepped forwards, toward a man giving commands to the others.

She slipped through the white armor and the identical faces, gathering attention as she did so.

"Excuse me," she said, though she had already gained the commanders attention. Or perhaps he wasn't a commander, his armor wasn't designed like one. Whatever he was he took a long look at her before his eyes settled on her Light Saber, strapped to her hip, and he straightened up into Attention.

"Sir. Er, Ma'am?" he faltered.

She smiled at him in soft assurance. "Either works. I am Aliette Ansa, Master Kenobi sent me to help with the injured. Are you a medic?"

The clone gave a quick shake of his head. "No. Medics all fell already. I've got basic training though, we've been trying to organize," he jerked his head to the others around them. She followed his motion, her eyes shifting across face to face, and their subtle differences, and their wounds. She turned back to him.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"CT-32-"

She cut him off gently. "Your name, sir."

He startled, the others around them shifted. "Flint, Ma'am," he reported.

Aliette gave a nod in acknowledgement. "Flint, would you see if you can set up a shelter? And get what medical supplies you can to it? We need to handle the most critically wounded first, if it's possible, and that means keeping them out from under foot first and foremost."

"Right away, Ma'am," Flint snapped her a salute and ran off to another congregation of men to injured to move on with their duties.

Aliette turned around to the trooper closest to her.

"You," she gestured for him to step forwards, which he did with a snap to attention that hit his arm to his side and made him wince. Aliette pursed her lips. Clones were designed with a high pain tolerance, so it must have been bad for him to show it visibly.

"Your name?" she asked.

He had apparently learned from Flint's mistake and was quick, and somewhat proud, to inform her that he was Cover.

She smiled at him. "You won't be covering anyone for a while with your arm like that. May I?" she held her hand out.

Cover obediently placed his hurt arm in her grip. There was no hesitation, no distrust or peacocking the way most males she had worked with tended to do. It was a refreshing change, and it saved her the usual time she would have spent arguing and ordering.

The Healers Trance she used was light, seeing as it was a battle field, and the fracture, while twisted, was relatively minor. It had only taken to poking at a neve, which was what caused Cover so much pain. There was a soft glow of the Force altering the light and matter between her hands, closed over Cover's arm, and the brake.

She shifted it back in to place, feeling him tense and hearing him breath in sharper, before she mended it. Bones, at first, had been near impossible for her to do. They were stubborn, and ignored her nature of Suggest, no matter how beneficial it would be. At last she had to change it from her preferred Center to Demand and Order and Force to make the calcium repair itself.

The alteration, by then, was a familiar one, and she took it in stride. The Force moved through her, taking her guidance and channel for what it was, responding willingly to her call for assistance.

In a minute Cover was testing his arm out, twisting it this way and that as he experimented with motion.

"It will be easier to break for a few weeks," Aliette warned, "So please don't go punching tanks."

Cover grinned at her. "Yes Ma'am."

She turned to the next clone in a semi-formed line, one of many, and extended her hand.

The limb placed into her care was much worse off than Cover's. It was the hand that was the problem, smashed almost entirely into bits of bone and torn up capillary beds. Her eyes widened in surprise at the sight and she looked up at the owner. A crescent tattoo bordered the eyes that met hers.

"Long Shot, sir," he reported, "got caught between the joints of a Super Battle Droid during one on one."

"One on five," someone behind him corrected. He straightened to Attention when Aliette looked over Long Shot's shoulder. "Group of us, me, Long Shot, Raugh, Tek, and Nik took one on when it got through the defenses."

"That must had been difficult. Were the rest injured as well?" she asked, splitting her attention between the Force and the trooper.

His mouth turned in a grim line. "The two of us were the only ones that finished that fight."

Aliette frowned and nodded, turning back to the task at hand. Carefully she pulled together the muscles and bones, the nerves, tendons and flesh. The glove had been stripped away at some point before Long Shot came into her care, making it easier for her to see what she was doing as well as See where the damage lifted away.

"What did you say you were called?" she asked Long Shot's friend. The clone shifted higher on a torn leg.

"Liner, Sir."

It was a number of minutes before she had Long Shot set, a time during which several of her new patients had been forced to the ground.

When her attention was again allowed fully on her surrounding she found that Flint had returned and was standing patiently at her side. She rewarded him with a smile.

"Is it set?" she asked, letting Long Shot have his hand back. He was twisting it around curiously, like he didn't quite recognize the digits now that they no longer had bone poking through the flesh.

"Yes Ma'am, over there," he pointed a little ways away from them, to a make-shift lean-to. Inside she could see men laying or sitting on improvised stretchers or crates of medical supplies. Most of them were pale with pain or leaning heavily on another brother.

Aliette took a breath, squaring her shoulders in Command and strode forwards. The clones parted like water in front of her and fell into step behind. They had a very limited window of time during which they would be able to tend to the wounded, and she intended to take advantage of it while she could.

"Long Shot," she called behind her. In a second the trooper was by her side, his chest puffed as he awaited her order. "Find any you can with medical experience, improvised or Flash Trained, please."

The man took well to her demands and snapped a salute before running off. She felt him go through the hurting brothers of his, knew when he reached another group of soldiers. Of survivors.

Her jaw tightened before she made it relax. A tense Healer was no good to anyone. They were conduits for the Force, Conductors for the orchestra that mended Pain. If they were tense so to would be their work, which could not be allowed. Healing required strict reset but flexible possibility, improvisation and focus. Healing was a contradictory art in many ways.

Aliette entered the small shelter, taking stock in an instant as Master Che had instructed her. They had Bacta Patches and bandages, true ones and an additional supply made of torn clothe from the area around. Kits were situated in a stack in the corner, all opened and virtually ransacked. These men were starting to worry. Without any trained doctors she couldn't blame them.

Aliette cleared her throat loud enough that all eyes locked on her. When a number of clones tried to rise she held a hand up to stop them.

"Stay. We're fixing you, not making it worse," she ordered. They obeyed with unease. She didn't say anything about it.

She looked behind her, picking Flint out of the crowd and calling him forwards. He stepped up.

"Would you get started assessing injuries? We need to start right away." She didn't add 'while we have a chance', it hung in the air without her needing to voice it. They knew better than she that time was a precious resource they would not be allotted for long.

Flint nodded and got to work. Aliette turned back to the others around her, those well enough to stand. "I'm going to work from most severe to least critical, so please place yourself accordingly," the words were a request but the men took them as orders. While they set themselves in the order she mentioned Aliette lowered herself to the ground beside one of the unconscious troopers. He had suffered a nasty looking head wound, one already smeared with what little Bacta they had left. If there was more everyone else would been bathing in it already.

The girl shooed off his worried Brother, one hovering near the impact sight, and shifted to his place. The broken ground bit into her bare knees and she made a note to trade skirt for pants when she had the opportunity, or at least add leggings.

Shrapnel had done the damage, she noted, and was proud to see that someone had had the foresight to remove it from the man's skull before adding the gel.

Aliette lay her hand over his head, stopping a few inches shy of touching. The girl opened herself to the Force, and to the man beside her. To his Pain and Hurt, to the Tears and Breaks and Pieces that the Force told her were there. She breathed in, taking information with it. She breathed out, letting the Force fall from her palm into the clone. It sunk through his skin, into the muscles, bone and brain matter. There was blood gathering inside, which was what she needed to take care of first.

Gold eyes opened, locking on the tense face of the clone she had made move.

"Give me that pack," she ordered, pointing to the metal kit closest to them. The clone looked between his brother, to her, to her weapon before he obeyed. She pursed her lips. It seemed not all of them followed orders as well as others.

When the kit was dropped into her possession she flicked through it, setting aside patches, needles and bandages until she found what she needed.

From the supplies she plucked a long, hollow tube with a shining point on the end. Locating the sight of hemorrhage she struck through with hesitation. The clone jerked, as did the unconscious men in her care when the needle punctured his skull and blood started flowing out.

"It was inside," she told the clone, "Pushing on his brain, adding pressure. It could have caused permanent damage if it wasn't let out," she explained. Once she was sure he wasn't going to stage a mutiny in defense of him she went on, healing the particles of bone and stitched together where flesh had split and veins had spilt. By the time she was done he had relaxed noticeable and some of the color had returned to his cheeks.

When Aliette looked up from her patient she found that Long Shot had brought several other clones back with him and they, along with Flint, were taking care of the superficial injuries. Anything flesh and easy to fix they were getting done.

Aliette looked back to the hoverer, knowing that Master Che would have physically thrown him from the ward if she were present. Since she wasn't, Aliette felt safe giving him a smile.

"He'll be fine. Give him a bit to wake and you can talk."

The trooper nodded, his surprise clear. She didn't address it, already moving on to the next one that needed her attention. Outside her realm she heard voices lift, felt panic and fear accompany it.

"Fantastic," she muttered, glaring out of the shelter. Her hands never stopped replacing the rearranged organs. She coaxed burnt flesh into life once more, getting him stable before she moved on once more.

"We need everyone able to move as soon as possible," she declared, "Liner, how'd your leg?"

Liner, who had been sitting on the ground in the corner, looked down at the Bacta coated limb. There was an empty syringe next to him. Aliette made a note to list all of their supplies once they were out of the frying pan.

"I can walk," he said at last.

Aliette nodded to herself, moving to the last unconscious clone. "Good. We're going to run a retreat for anyone who can't fight right now," she stopped then, knowing she would have to clear that with her master. Where ever he was. And her without a Com Link "We need to keep them and the medical supplies out of harm's way if it's possible. Would you tell that to Master Kenobi and see if he is able to adjust his plans to compensate for it? If not, Long Shot," she turned her eyes to the man standing sentry outside, "Needs to find a place to nest down, away from the general battle field."

The men both saluted her before running off, a reaction she was very unused to, as well as their general obedience. She was a Padawan Learner, before that just some Healer who would never be a Knight, people did not do as she said without question. Except these men, who reacted to her orders without hesitation, who trusted her to do her job.

Aliette pressed her lips together in a line. The pressure was on.

Once she had fixed the clones lungs, burnt inside from reasons she didn't know, she stood up to see who else she could help. So used to having to explain each step she took to impatient and paranoid patients she continued the practice with the clones, even after she realized that they would do as she told even if she didn't give the reason.

It was strange, really, that they didn't question her, didn't poke and pick at every twitch of her fingers.

Liner appeared again, with her new Master in tow.

She stood up from where she had been popping a shoulder back where it belonged, clasping her hand before her and bowing to the General.

"Master Kenobi," she greeted, "I hope I haven't over stepped my bounds. You told me to help…" she trailed off, shifting onto the heel of her low boots. Che had had a certain way she did things, a way things were to be done and those who did not follow her orders soon wished they had. She hoped Kenobi was different in that aspect.

"And you have," he said, eyes sliding across the work she had done with the clones, "quite a bit, I see."

Aliette nodded quickly. "Most of them would be able to fight if it came down to it now, though there are a few that should stay down for some time to come, it it's possible. I had hoped to set a place away from the fight for the injured to get to."

Kenobi stroked his beard thoughtfully. "I'm afraid that might not be possible. The Seperatists have come up with an extending Ray Shield that is coming our way now."

Fear fluttered in her heart. "I see."

She had managed to stay composed so far because she was in her element, among the wounded. Fighting, while she was able to do it, was not her forte. She doubted it ever would be, the girl was a pacifist at heart.

Kenobi was watching her. She swallowed her nerves and straightened, meeting his eyes squarely.

"Where would you like me?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Reviews;**

 **UlvDakota: Thank you! I hope this is soon enough!**

 **Chapter 2: The Battle for Christophsis.**

* * *

Aliette was not a soldier.

She didn't think she had it in her to be one. She was, however, a Healer. And that meant that she was very closely tuned to the Force. It let her know the men behind her, who was still standing and who needed assistance, which parts of their line needed the most additional strength, lended by her Light Saber.

One thing Master Che had always instructed her pupils was the importance of never being struck. They had to be fast more than powerful, for the sake of those under their care they could not be hit, not even once. It was one of the few things she taught that was battle oriented, but it was taught with just as much rigidity as the rest of her lessons.

Aliette's Saber flashed in blurs of green as she moved, ever on the defense. She deflected blows, sending them away from herself and from her men, into buildings and rubble around them. If it were a different planet she would have been more hesitant, in fear of damaging beings around her, be they fauna or flora.

Christophsis was, however, what many Jedi referred to as a Dead Planet. Its people were not dead, no, but it was primarily stones and ore, crystals that were not touched by the Force. The Living Force, which let her heal and showed Seers what the future might hold, was weak on this world. It did not sing through the people who lived upon it, it did not dance in the shadows of flickering plants or laugh with heart beat of the living.

It settled here, a barely present mist that settled so low to the ground she could barely feel it anywhere besides behind her and somewhere in front, with the Force Signatures of her friend and their Masters. Far off she could feel others, refugees whose Self's shivered with the shots of canon fire and conflict.

It was disorienting in comparison to the Temple, to Coruscant, so alight with ever Flowing Life that it was hard to sleep sometimes.

Aliette pushed thoughts of her home from her mind, focusing on the task as hand before her robot movements missed something, before she let a blast through her Soresu Movements. Her eyes slid across the glittering destruction, catching droids and unmoving armor through the shield.

Without needing to be told by mortal voices Aliette shifted from her position in front of a clone called Fort and slipped gracefully across the broken earth to stop the stream of Blaster Fire that had begun to concentrate on a portion of their Line containing Cover and a friend he had introduced as Deka. She arrived in time to flick away an increase in the Death Lights. She didn't get everything. No, that was impossible for her skills. But she did what she could and her men were survivors, they knew what they were doing far more than she. She just did what she thought worked best and what the Force nudged her to.

"We're getting closer to the Canons," Cover shouted above the din of the battle. Aliette slashed upwards, sending a beam of light darting into the top of a building. She let out a careful breath and stepped back again, crouching to stay at the same height that she had been before. They were in the buildings, using them and the more flexible movements of flesh beings to combat the sheer number of droids that were coming at them, slipping through the cracks.

"How long do we have?" she asked, hating having to raise her voice. She wished she had a Com Link like the men behind her, it would have been easier. Instead she got a Jedi issue that she hadn't remembered to sync into theirs before the battle began.

"Not long enough," he replied grimly. Aliette dared a glance back through a gapping window. The canons were right with them, the last line falling in with the men in charge of them as they were steadily pushed out of the building. The coward part of her wanted to find a room with thick walls and stay there until it was done. The Healer part demanded that she leave the battle to start dragging the injured away.

Aliette steeled her will and turned back to the advancing line. Her Master had trusted his men, hers now, to her. She would not abandon them.

"Do you know where my Master is?" she asked. They dropped behind a make shift barricade, into a sea of white armor scorched and stained with battle. The men denied her hope and she turned back to the front, dutifully taking her position.

She moved from one end to the other, helping as much as she could. It made her heart squeeze horribly every time her moving one way caused pain in where she had come from. There was no changing that, it was the lesser of evils, or maybe it wasn't.

A fight was no place for philosophy. If she made it out alive she could write a book, for the time being…

The flashes of green increased into long blurs of light that sliced cleanly through the air, snapping the assault away. She swallowed thickly when she felt lives drop away. It was inevitable, she knew, and death was not unknown to any Healer, Aliette had felt its sting before. That never made it hurt less.

 _Liner, goodbye. Letic, Buff, Bruise. Force welcome you._

There were others, those whose names she had never heard. She would ask for them and wish them farewell too, if she didn't join them before she got the chance.

"General Kenobi has been captured!"

When she heard the horrible words a blast got through, striking her shoulder. The young Pantoran screamed in pain and hit the ground gripping the wound. It was cauterized alright, which was something, but it hurt more than she knew something could. Her teeth grit together until she thought they would crack.

A hand gripped her elbow, dragging the Padawan back just in time to avoid being shot through by an SBD. She scrambled, the will to live over taking the hurt of her shoulder. It was Cover that got her feet under her. She was opening her mouth to thank him when he fell to the ground, the same droid that almost killed her taking his life.

She lunged, swinging her saber into the metal. Sparks exploded, metal gave way under the super heat of her weapons and the false creature was bisected in a smooth twist of her body.

It was the first true strike she had ever made.

The shield was shivering over the mouths of their canon when something extraordinary happened.

It cut off.

For a second there was a lull in the battle, both flesh and droid looking to the sky. Then Captain Rex's voice, different somehow from the others, exploded into the air.

"The Shield is down! Go, go go!" he shouted, loud enough she could here from the other side of the battle field. "All canon's, fire on those tanks!"

The men surged forwards, the canons exploded above her head and for an instant Aliette was caught. She was no warrior, it was not in her Nature to rush into a fight and slash through opponents with no care for what happened in the after math.

She had done well with the defense, with where she knew what to do and how to do it. This was different.

Then someone was shouting, Long Shot was shooting to his name and Flint was dragging a downed brother out of the way.

Aliette rushed to him and stopped the death that rained in light, moved forwards to defend the clones, the troopers, the men that were born and bred for what she would never have chosen for herself.

The world was a wash of explosions and light, of Life flickering into Death, of the Force surging with the emotions of those around her that gave her the courage she needed to drive her weapon into the chest plate of a battle droid, two, three, until she lost count.

She felt when her Master and when Ahsoka and hers returned and joined the fray, cutting down through the ranks of robots in rapid unison with their troops.

The Fear never left her through the battle, not even in the waning time of scattered metal and loss, but it was alright. She could work through it. Work with it.

Like the first time she entered surgery, with shaking hands and frightened thoughts, with a small heart fluttering like trapped wings inside her ribs.

Her hands were larger now, her slender fingers steady around her blade. The pounding of her heart kept her aware and helped her count the beat of battle as she worked with the same goal in mind she had had since the first time she stepped foot in the Hall of Healing. To stop pain. To Help, to Heal. Now, something new joined into a trifecta.

Help, Heal, Protect.

* * *

The aftermath was harder to deal with, and easier to handle, than the battle itself.

In the battle she had been lost, but focused on survival.

In the cleanup she knew exactly what she was doing, but she had time to reflect on the fight and the deaths that it brought.

She didn't have time to mourn properly, she just had time to learn the names of the fallen between making sure than no others joined them of infection or untreated wound.

Master Kenobi had managed to pull a muscle in his back, and Ahsoka had broken a rib somehow, but aside from them it was the men that needed her, and in some ways she needed them. She needed to feel them, alive, surrounding her even with their easing pains.

They were given the chance to take stock, for which she was grateful. They had enough medical supplied to treat everyone when her ability to Heal started to fade with her over all energy. She was going to exhaust herself, she knew. She couldn't seem to want to stop the way Master Che had always forced her to. There was too much to do, to many clones to see to.

"You should slow down," Master Kenobi said from his seat in the building they had cleared for medical purposes, "We have more to do than just this. Our mission from the temple still stands."

Aliette nodded absently as she tied bandage off. Flint had suggested she save the Force Healing for the worst of it. She had inclined to agree when her chin started trying to drop. They were only doing basic triage there while everyone was packing up and loading onto to the transports. The battle was won and there was another that they were going to be late for if they weren't quick. It was funny, Battlefield Healing was easier than it was in the temple. The Clones did not fight her the way Jedi tried to, were not Stubborn or Insubordinate in the way that she had often had to fetch Master Che to Crush. It was not in her Nature to Destroy rebellion the way Che did. She would rather Reason and Request.

That didn't mean it didn't take energy, it just meant it took less.

"Is Master Skywalker back with Ahsoka?" she asked, sitting back on her heels. The Force faded from its concentration in her hands and the trooper, on who still went by 34, thanks her and walked off.

Gold eyes rose from the cracked tile of the floor to land on her new Master. It was so much in so little time. She had only been told the day before that she was at last to be a Padawan Learner, then she arrived in the middle of the battle and met and mourned, all in less than a Standard day. It had her weary and tired, she felt like she could sleep for a month without disturbance.

Slowly she breathed in, her eyes flickering shut momentarily as she set aside her creeping exhaustion to Focus. When her eyes opened again Master Kenobi was watching her closely.

She sat straighter, her attention focusing entirely on him. He stood up and offered his hand to her.

"They're on their way. We're going to meet them at the landing space," Master Kenobi told her.

Aliette nodded and slipped her hand in his, letting him pull her to her feet. She didn't think she was ready to do anything more that day, but it appeared that things worked quickly for a Padawan on the field. It wasn't that different from the Halls, she had spent days in intense surgery before. She would live, and she would follow her Master where he went.

She would prove she deserved her place as a Padawan, no matter what the past said.

* * *

When they reached the small green Jedi the young Pantoran bowed while her Master nodded in respect to the other.

"Master Yoda," he greeted.

"Master Kenobi. Difficulties you have had, capturing this planet with?" he asked, a teasing tilt to his voice.

Kenobi smiled wanly and glanced around them. "I suppose you could say that."

"Another Padawan, you also have. Prepared, are you?" he continued.

To that Kenobi needed no further questions.

"Yes, I'm ready to try teaching again. Aliette has already proven herself capable of working on the battlefield, and off. It will be a pleasure to be her instructor."

Out of the corner of his eye he saw his new apprentice stand straighter, her chin lifting from its tired droop. She was good at drawing strength from the Force, but she was still young. Not even much younger than he was when he became a Knight. It was curious, she was several years older than most Padawans were when they began.

He would ask about that later.

"While I am pleased to be a Master once more, I'm afraid the same can't be said for Anakin. I understand that things are different now that we're in a wars campaign, but is it wise to give a Padawan to a Jedi who does not want one?" he questioned.

The old master hummed lowly. "Foreseen, it was, that Ahsoka should be his Padawan. A mistake though, if Skywalker is unwilling."

 _And my Padawan_? Kenobi wondered _, Was she foreseen?_

It was a question that was quickly dismissed. He'd already had one student tangled up in a prophesy, he didn't need to bring along another. The musing were cut off when he Sensed the return of the pair and looked up to see Anakin and Ahsoka approaching. They were still a little charred around the edges, but other than that appeared fine, if you ignored the still present bruise on Ahsoka's exposed ribs.

They were quite different, the two Padawans. Ahsoka was loud and snarky, with the white marking of her people and her sun-set skin, exposed largely above her waistline with skin tight clothes that really only covered her chest and hands.

Contrarily his own Padawan was much more reserved and respectful, without her people traditional yellow high lights. Their clothes were opposing as well, whereas Aliette had loose sleeves and a shirt that would allow her easier movement without the flexibility the Ahsoka had already shown.

It fit her occupation as a Healer well, though he might recommend she revise it as they went on.

"Master Yoda," Anakin greeted when he was close enough, "And Master Obi Wan. "

Yoda looked up at Obi Wan's former trainee. "Trouble, you have, with your new Padawan, I hear."

At Anakin's surprise Obi Wan drew the attention to himself.

"I was just explaining the situation to Master Yoda," he explained.

"If not ready for a Padawan, are you, perhaps another, we could-"

"No wait just a minute," Anakin interrupted the old master, surprising all present, "I'll admit that Ahsoka is a little… rough around the edge, but with a great deal of training, and patience," Obi Wan almost snorted at the hypocrisy, "She might amount to something."

Yoda nodded sagely. "Then go with you, she will, to the Teth system."

Anakin visibly balked. "Teth? That's Wild Space. The droid army isn't even in that sector.

"Kidnapped, Jabba the Hutt's son had been," Yoda explained.

"You wan me, to rescue Jabba's son?" Anakin asked incredulously. Obi Wan had a similar view of the decision. Anakin's history with the Hutts was well known to the council.

Still, it was necessary, as he would make his former Padawan see. "Anakin," he began, "We'll need the Hutt's allegiance to give us an advantage of Dooku," he explained slowly. He felt rather than saw Aliette shift from her place flanking him at the mention of the Sith Lord.

"Negotiate the treaty with Jabba, Obi Wan will. Bring Aliette along, is a good idea, hmm?" Yoda looked between the two Knights. "Find the renegades that hold Jabba's son, your mission will be, Skywalker."

Ahsoka was much more willing to complete the task than Anakin was, even leading the way to their ships. Obi Wan withheld a sigh. With her headstrong nature and Anakin's own personality, the Separatist's might not need to both sending enemies after the pair.

Before they got too far Aliette called after them, "Take a back pack with you! Huttlets stay almost exclusively in a Brood Pouch until their about fifty cycles old. It'll help the little one when you find him."

Storing the new knowledge for later Obi Wan brought his Com Link up to speak into it. "Commander Cody, prep my ship and one for my Padawan, we're going on a trip."

He didn't need to wait for the affirmative that it would be done, Cody was a good soldier, and would follow his instructions to the letter.

"Come along, Young One, there's work to be done," he ordered, gesturing his Padawan to follow. She bowed to Master Yoda before spinning to catch up to him, her light hair fluttering with her movements. They would have to put her Padawan braid in soon, maybe once they were back from their mission.

Obi Wan took her to the flyers where one of the clones from Anakin's division had not only gotten his ship ready, but managed to get a Delta-7 for his Padawan. It was dented and needed some extra paint but it would do for the time being, until he could get her a 7B like his.

He thanked the man, as did Aliette, before they were in. The engine thrummed to life under his experienced fingers. The interceptor wobbled briefly before leveling out, and both Master and Padawan were off, into the atmosphere.

* * *

Even with the assistance of hyperspace the trip to Hutt Space gave her more time to think, more time than she would have liked. It gave her time to remember Cover, remember the gaping hole in his chest that was caused by his rescuing her. Covering her back. He was true to his name and she had to work not to weep for him.

Crying was not for Jedi. They were to have no attachments and tears would show one.

There is no emotion, only peace.

It wasn't the first time someone had died near her. She had worked in the hospital wing of the Jedi Order for too long to not have encountered Death before. To feel Life flicker out of a Flame and into Smoke that floated into the Universe.

There is no death, only the Force.

Eleven years was a long time for anyone to work with wounded. Too long for her to have no said goodbye to others. They were Jedi, which made them Miracles, but even Miracles did not create Immortality.

Still, no one had ever died helping her before. Not at the Temple, certainly not on Pantora. It struck a blow deep inside her that she would have to puzzle through when she had more time. Already they were nearing Tatooine.

The planet was a mash of tans and dusted purple with barely a dozen clouds floating in its atmosphere. It was the exact opposite of her home world, coated in ice and snow all year round. As they descended she could feel her skin prickle with heat she couldn't feel through metal and glass. It was difficult enough at the temple, where her physiology kept her overly warm on the too-hot, too-humid planet.

She disconnected from hyperdrive and descended behind her Master, flying just as smoothly as she had been taught at the Temple.

Both Jedi ships landed without issue outside the towering construct that was supposedly a palace. It looked more like a prison, which may have been more accurate.

Aliette shook her head before she opened the hatch and slipped out of the ship. It was like being struck with a hot iron. Pantoran's were not made for heat, they were of the cold and the ice, and the arctic winds. Not an arid breeze of stinging sand and stifling heat. A single breath made her feel like she was choking.

The girl breathed out, letting the heat out with it. It didn't help much.

"Come along, Aliette," Master Kenobi called, spurring his Padawan to obey. She jogged to catch up, the sloping heels of her boots levering her across the hard packed stone towards the welcoming party that had emerged from inside the fortress.

She rolled her shoulders back and stood straighter. She could not look bad with her new Master. They weren't an official pair until she had her braid, and even then he could send her back if he decided that they were not a good pair. The thought made her stomach churn with unease.

She finally had her chance to truly be a Jedi Knight, to step into the ranks that she had worked for for so long. She didn't want to lose it so soon.

The protocol droid stepped in front of them. "It would be most unwise to keep the Mighty Jabba waiting," it stated.

"Then by all means, lead the way," he master requested. The droid did just that, turning their party to the palace. Aliette followed behind her master, glancing to the side when the three others fell in around them. One of them leered openly at the young Pantoran' sending her eyes straight forwards again.

Her jaw tightened and she focused solely on her masters back, her hands clasped behind her own.

She focused on her breathing, calling on the calm of the Force to ease her heart. Peace and Tranquility, that was where her Center needed to be. Instead she could feel it start to settle into Fear. This was a journey for diplomacy. Fear had no place there. The massive door slid shut behind them.

The Palace was a mosh of creatures from all aspect of life and all across the galaxy. She could recognize bounty hunters, traitors and those scarcely clad that revealed their own occupation. Aliette had no judgement in her heart for them. It was not her place to do so.

The meeting room with the Hutt was circular, with a platform for Jabba to sit on. Twi'lek dancers left the center of the room to make a space for the two Jedi. Aliette took a place behind her Master and bowed to the large creature in front of them.

"Mighty Jabba," Master Kenobi greeted, "One of our most powerful Jedi is on his way to rescue your son. We will not let you down."

While they discussed the terms of their agreement Aliette listened both to them ad to the worm around them, to the mutters and complaints, to the softer whispers of well-rehearsed words meant for lower ears. She did not hear with hers, she heard with her mind, with the Force. It could do more than just shove objects around, contrary to popular assumption. It was a connection to all things in the universe.

Every stone and every person was a part of it, even if the inanimate was not one with the Living Force.

Things seemed to be going well, Jabba was willing to allow them passage and even his own hand in alliance if they got his son back, with a limited addition on behalf of the Republic. Things did need to be mutually beneficial.

The pair left once everything was set, going on their way to meet with Ahsoka and Master Skywalker. As they were moving off the of the planet Aliette could have sworn she felt something familiar move through the Force.

She stopped halfway into her ship and looked around, confusion written on her features.

When nothing presented itself she moved on, unaware that she, and her Master, were being watched.


	3. Chapter 3

**Bit of a shorter chapter, just to wrap up the end of the movie.**

 **Reivews;**

 **AutumLeaves03: Thank you! That's just Count Dooku, waiting for them to leave so he can lie to Hutts. These first three chapters were all taking place over the 2008 movie.**

 **MisterShiryo: Thank you very much! I hope this meets expectations!**

 **Chapter 3: Komari's Blades**

* * *

Aliette had never expected that her first day with her Master would be as busy as it was, and now it was proving to be even more eventful as they descended onto Teth as back up for the 501st, moving in at the behest of Master Skywalker. An assassin by the name of Ventress was present, and Master Kenobi had already ordered her to avoid engaging the woman. Aliette wasn't sure if she was offended or not. On one hand, she was not near as skilled as her Master and would follow his advice when given. On the other, she was not completely inept when it came to combat. She just didn't like participating in it.

The girl braced herself for the jump as she followed her Masters lead, handing the controls over to her little R3 unit. Her hand slid to her hip where her Light Saber hung, her fingers curling around the weapon. It twitched in her grip, like it wanted out and she frowned.

It had never liked her, even when she was creating it. Even when she was tuning the crystal and focusing solely on its creation there had been something _wrong_ about it, about them. Like two pieces of a puzzle that looked like they should fit but never did. In the end she had to force the metaphorical corner down and deal with it.

She assumed at first it was just her own pacifism getting in the way, but that wouldn't make sense. Master Sha'ak Ti was known to dislike fighting but she was one of the greatest Knights that Aliette knew.

Not wholly unlike her own Master, who had beat her to the ground and was slicing through droids. The wind whipped around her, tugging at the loose clothes of her sleeves and shirt, trying to blind the Padawan with its rough assault.

She landed with a blast of the Force that toppled a number of droids, allowing the blue-stripped troopers a moment to regain their bearings and start shooting. The planet hummed with light beneath her feet, the jungle sang the song of Life and Welcome to the young woman.

Her blade ignited and she moved, putting herself with purpose between the Clones and the droids, trusting the men not to shoot her in the back by accident and she twirled the green blade with every intent of defending them, as well as herself. Defense, once again. Her Center was more aligned here, in a world so brimming with life, she felt safer somehow, as if the trees themselves might lift a twig to help her if only she knew how to ask.

The Troopers of 212th that they had picked up along their way to help dropped after the pair, shooting with shouts and orders.

Her master was fighting and, flirting? With a bald woman who's heart over flowed with pain and anger. Aleitte hurt with sympathy for her, but moved on without a word. She was Sith, her blades glowing red and deathly as they lashed out against her Master.

Aliette looked away long enough to moved across the field to a small gaggle of pinned clones, slicing through the droids on her way. When she looked back the assassin was no long with her Master, but Kenobi was staring at her with his mouth open to shout.

The world shouted suddenly, its voice overpowering her Masters, yelling for her to move and, on instinct, she dove sideways. The ground sparked with Light Saber strike and she brought hers up just in time to block.

The force of the blow was jarring, sending Aliette stumbling back as she tried to get her feet settled under her again. She barely managed to center herself before the next blade slashed towards her and she was holding it, barely.

A pang of recognition shot through her, familiarity slapped her across her face.

She knew these Light Sabers. They were bloody and saturated with hatred now but she _knew_ them, knew them. Even in this new form she would recognize them anywhere in the Galaxy for what they were, for who they belonged to.

"Komari," she whispered her surprise. The woman's blue eyes narrowed in return and she flung the secondary sword towards the younger girl. Aliette felt her heart threaten to break at the feel of it, coming at her deadly precision.

Aliette moved out of the way, her body remembering what her mind did not. Her Light Saber followed its commands, barely tolerating the demand that it block. Even still the Pantoran moved smoothly. She not only knew the Light Sabers, she knew the style with which they were being used. Eleven years after the last time she had face the graceful, deadly movements taught by Dooku and she could still see where his instructions would have been.

" _Lin'ha, you're moves are still sloppy, raise your blade higher," his voice was commanding for all it was patient with the batch of Younglings, all of Clan Bergruufta. Not that Master Dooku referred to them as such. He focused on individuals rather than groups. Everyone adored and dreaded the days that he and his Padawan helped them train in mock-combat. Dooku was a perfectionist, and Komari was… passionate._

 _This, the young Pantoran had known going in. She barely kept her training Saber up with the two that Padawan Vosa had picked up and was now coming at her with. They struck quickly, moving in a graceful combination that few others could achieve._

" _Keep on your feet, Ansa," Komari ordered, nearly knocking them out from under her with one of the blue lines._

Aliette jumped over the attack, flipping gracefully across one that came from behind her before she landed and back off, holding her Light Saber in front of her with both hands. It cross diagonally across her, thrumming with power that tried to run from her grasp.

 _The young one rushed in, ducking between the arms of her assailant to try and 'stab' her through the belly. Instead she barely escape a near-embrace that would bisect one in real combat._

" _Aliette!" Dooku barked, "Never put yourself inside the arms of an enemy unless you wish a bloody death," his voice dropped to a quieter, less harsh tone, "For one who leaves you little time to retaliate, wear them down with your defense, or better yet, get behind and strike them from there. Understood?"_

 _Aliette, paused from the fight to listen attentively, nodded and faced forwards once more._

 _Komari grinned, a feral, battle loving smile that made Aliette's heart jump with fear for herself. The human was always so hard on her, it was awful. Vosa always went after her with more force and skill than any Initiate would be able to hold up against, usually Aliette walked away with bruises and some decent advice._

The Pantoran blocked and moved against the familiar moved, never striking back as she kept from getting struck down or killed. She knew this style, she had known it since her first arrival at the temple. Any of her year mates would recognize it but few were as familiar defending against it as she.

Green clashed against red, one Jedi falling into a strange sort of calm as the assassin grew angrier by each strike. The clones around them shot down and beat away the droids along with her master, who was quickly making his way to her. She wished he would hurry, she could only just keep up with the rapid fire attacks and the fact was that Ventress was much stronger than her.

" _Hey Ansa, wanna see something cool?"_

 _Aliette was most certain that the answer was 'no' but she wasn't given a chance to say it before Komari had stuck the two ends of her play-sabers together with a burst of Force and was coming at her with them joined, sweeping long arcs at the youngling. Aliette shouted as she was struck in the chest, and sent tumbling to the ground._

She saw the twist even as Ventress was swinging at her and pitched herself backwards, rolling onto the ground and flipping over her shoulders. Her Saber rose above her head as her knees planted themselves on the ground, just barely stopping the twin swords of her assailant.

Her Master came flying in from the side, sending Ventress on the defense. The rest of the droids were already gone or going, an effort she helped with once the assassin had fled.

Through the clean-up and the travel off world her mind remained on the Sith blades and the Force Signature of their creator, still clinging stubbornly to their core.

* * *

"So," Aliette began once they were safe on one of the cruisers, "How was your first day?" More like four days.

Ahsoka looked at her from where she had been ticking through a book, the paper fluttering lightly under the Torgruta's fingers. Blue eyes met gold, an inversion of themselves, and the girl smiled, close lipped to hide the predatory point of her teeth.

As she set the book aside Ahsoka turned to her elder, crossing her legs on the bunk that she had been given in the room that they would be temporarily splitting. With so many officers on one base they had agreed to share one room with two bunks.

"Wanna compare notes?" she asked, a sort of teasing in her tone.

Aliette smiled softly as the young Padawan, one of the most talented combatants that any of their teachers had ever seen. There was a reason she was being deployed during war times instead of waiting, like many Younglings were being allowed to do.

Before she could agree and share with her young friend what had transpired that day there came a knock on the door. The girls looked at each other before Ahsoka called, "Come in?"

There was no denying that she was more outgoing and confident of the two, for good reason. She was very well skilled, she was smart and Aliette doubted very much she would be able to compete if they ever came to blows.

A good match for Master Skywalker, from what she had observed earlier that day. An unorthodox Jedi and a quick thinker, he was, and Ahsoka would no doubt flourish under his tutelage.

Aliette had high hopes for her own Master, a well-known man as Diplomat and a strong Knight, he had already taught a great Jedi, and would hopefully be able to help her progress onto a route she had thought lost to her years ago.

Now that it wasn't her heart was light. He had accepted her as his Padawan, and all they needed now was to complete the braid that she would wear for years to come.

It would come out, and be washed of course, it was no way going to last for the next decade, or however long it took her to become a Master. And after each time it did so the two of them would come together and once again create it, strengthen the Bond that they would share as Teacher and Student.

Ahsoka already had hers handing between her back and right Lekku. The Silka beads swung when she moved, and every now and again Aliette would catch her running her fingers over them. Hers would not need to be redone the way those made of hair did, and it would not come off unless Ahsoka herself removed it or she became a Knight.

The door opened with a gust of air pressure and in strode a clone in 212th copper, his helmet still in place. Aliette didn't recognize the designs he had done, nor did she recognize him through the Force. They had yet to meet then.

He stood at attention before the two Padawans. "Sir, General Kenobi needs you in his office."

Aliette knew an order when she heard one and, with a wave at her young friend, stood to follow the trooper out into the hall. He stayed lock-step the entire way, not responding beyond, "Stiff, Sir," when she asked his name.

Stiff fit his name, he didn't let up on his attention the entire way, until he had dropped her off inside her Master's office.

The room was militarily furnished, with scant decorations and mostly business necessities. There were chairs and a desk, and whole stack of Holo Pads sitting on top of it. On the other side sat her Master, skimming through data until she walked in, at which point he set it aside to greet her.

The light was just as blaring as all artificial ones, though its harshness was offset by the lingering scent of teas in the air. She didn't recognize the type, it was something earthy and low.

"Master?" she asked curiously when she strode in, once she'd risen from her bow. She hoped for a braid, but did not ask. He would give it to her when it was time, and form their Bond along with it.

That wasn't quite what he had planned though.


	4. Chapter 4

**Reviews;**

 **artisgirl16: Thank you! I hope this is soon enough!**

 **Chapter 4: Court Martial**

* * *

"Aliette," Obi Wan smiled at his new Padawan and gestured to one of the chairs across from his desk, "Have a seat, Young One, I have a task for you."

Curiosity shone in her bright, gold eyes. The girl sat obediently, perfect in posture with her back straight and her ankles cross. She must have paid attention during the etiquette lessons that the Order required all Younglings to attend.

Not that she was, any longer, a Youngling. She was too old for that by then.

"Yes, Master?" she questioned.

Obi Wan pushed the pad he had been inspecting across the desk too her. On it was picture of a clone, scars marking one half of his face as he stared straight at the camera. His number was listed, as well as his basic biological information, and under than a list.

"This is Chopper, one of my Troopers in the 212th," he said, "He's going to be Court Martialed for taking, 'souvenirs' from the battle field. Due to… extenuating circumstances we're going to be preforming his court martial a bit differently from normal one. I would like you to take care of it, and decide it's out come."

Aliette accepted the pad, looking it over slowly. "Master? Is this a test?" she asked, her voice soft. Nervous.

He nodded. "It is." It would not make him reject her as a Padawan, but it would give him further insight into what she was like.

"Court Martial… I've never been a part of one before," she murmured, flicking down the page. He saw her stop on the medical history and felt his mouth twitch up. It was easy to see that Che had made her a dutiful Healer, but he would need to mold her into a Commander as well.

"Then this will be a learning experience as well," Obi Wan declared. He wasn't surprised, not many Jedi were until the last two years, after the war broke out. She wouldn't have had a need to serve on a council for it before then.

Her worry was easy to read on her face, trepidation flashing over her azure features. Her hands on the pad were still steady, surgeon's hands.

They had held up to Ventress remarkably well. He hadn't expected her to be able to hold her own for as long as she did when the assassin turned her attention from him to the new Padawan, but she had moved with a good deal of speed. She wasn't very well equipped for attacking, but her defense was extremely solid.

When she stood up he watched her tuck the pad under her arm. Her lower lip stuck between straight teeth.

"I will try and do what is right," she told him, bowing.

The Jedi smiled at his Padawan. "I'm sure you'll do just fine."

This wasn't the kind of test that one failed. There was no wrong answer for her to give him, at that point. It was just curiosity that drove him to give her the assignment.

After all, it was a relatively minor break of the rules, it would be very difficult for her to make the wrong choice, and no one would be overly bothered if it wasn't brought before all of the officers Chopper had worked under, and a Senate representative. All of their focus was on Slick, and while they would be watching his squad more closely he doubted it would present much trouble if he altered the rules a little.

If anyone asked he could always say that she was most impartial judge they had available.

"We'll put your braid together when you get back," he offered, and was amused to see a light go on in her eyes and a smile tilt her face. She may have been old for a Padawan, but she was most definitely still young.

She dipped another bow before she was out of his office and into the hall, off to see about a Court Martial.

* * *

The first things Aliette did when she was given the assignment was go to find out exactly how a Court Martial usually went, which was really the easiest part. There was a very in depth description on them on file, and she was surprised to see that her Master was showing some disregard for that.

It was supposed to a council of five people that came up with the judgement, a Jedi, a Senate member, two Clone Officers of Captain rank or higher, and the accused party's first commanding officer. She was only one of those.

So, it was really a test for her and no one else.

If she was going to pass she needed to know exactly what she was dealing with.

At first she had just skimmed through the information on the pad, checked the regulation that Chopper had broken and looked over the rest of his data. He was a strong soldier, he'd been on Geonosis, and had a _truly_ impressive collections of demerits.

When she went through what each of them was for she was startled to see that most were very small infractions, things that most Sergeants would have looked over without much trouble, or just handled privately instead of setting on record. Things she would have let go without a word.

An untidy blaster, unsanctioned adjustments to armor, messed up bunk, the list went on into tiny, micromanaging of tasks that even Master Che would have never gone so far into.

There was something else on the file that bothered her.

A good chunk was labelled as classified.

It took her some time to work through the convoluted way she needed to get around it with her Commander Class Clearance to unlock them and find something interesting about their souvenir collecting clone.

A traitor and a Court Martial in one squad. That changed things.

As she walked along the paths of the military base, staying out of the way of the troops, she mulled over the information she had been given and what she could gather. The Padawan moved with silence, nodding politely to the clones she passed as she went.

There were four that she needed to find in particular.

The young Pantoran walked through the ship to the Mess Hall, where hopefully there would be at least one. From that one she could find the other three much more swiftly.

The Mess was, as always, crowded with troopers in their nice white armor or their grey-blue fatigues, nearly the same color as most Pantoran clothing, made from Jakobeast fur if one had the money for such sturdy, everlasting material.

She had only even touched its softness once, and had nearly lost her hand for the trouble of her curiosity. There was still a thin, silver scar on the back of her forearm from it, one that Master Che had ordered her to keep. A lesson in self-control and respect for her to remember always. When the bell of her sleeve shifted she could even see the marking.

Most men at least did not pay her too much mind in the Mess. They watched her for some minutes before going back to their activities, many nodding towards or saying something about her to their friends. The new-new Commander, Aliette Ansa. Jedi. Healer. Frost Bite.

Her lips twitched downwards at the derogatory term for her people. She had heard it before, she would hear it again, and so left the trooper that uttered the words alone. It wasn't important. She had been called worse in her life time.

She shifted through the men she knew and those who did not have the stylings of the one she sought, trying to find him without bothering the others with her quest.

It wasn't as hard as she first thought. In the end he was sitting alone in a back table, looking out over the crowd while he rubbed his fist with the opposing palm. Others would glance his way now and again before turning away again.

Aliette waited a moment before she was sure that he was the one she was looking for before slipping neatly through the tables and up to his. When he saw her coming he rushed to stand, or maybe it was to leave. She couldn't be sure for she gestured him down before he could.

He sat once more, never looking from her. She could see his knuckles whiten.

"Hello," she greeted, inclining her head in a soft of half-bow to the soldier. "Jester? May I join you?"

Jester, for that was now certainly who he was, nodded slowly. "Ye- Yes. Of, of course, Sir."

Aliette slid into the seat, aware that there were eyes on them. She smiled at Jester and pushed a small wave of Force Calm towards him, an offering he was free to accept or push away. When he breathed it in and his shoulders relaxed a small twitch of satisfaction settled over her. She hated bothering others, she was even less fond of causing anxiety when she had to do so.

When his hands settled into his lap, a mirror of Aliette's own pose, she began.

"I'm sure you know about the upcoming Court Martial," it was as much a statement as a question.

Still, Jester nodded. "Yeah, er, yes, Chopper's right?" he was still nervous, and there was a tell of a tic in his voice. A remnant of the light stutter he'd shown a moment before.

"That's right. I've been asked to participate in it, and I was wondering if you could give me a bit more insight into how things were under your former Sergeant," she explained, keeping her voice soft. It was rarely anything else.

The lines of his face tightened with tension.

"What did you want to know?" he asked carefully.

"Chopper has a very long list of demerits," most of their squad did, but he had the most, "I would like to know why."

Jester licked his lips and started rubbing his hand again. A nervous gesture, she decided.

"The Sarg- Slick. He, he hated Chopper. Hated all of us but Chopper most, then Punch. Every time Chopper did something Slick didn't like he'd find a way to punish him with Demerits or Extra Work," Jester said. He didn't seem to want to meet her eyes. She didn't ask him to.

"I see," she said softly, thinking over the information. There was more, she was sure, just Jester didn't seem to want to talk about it, in fact he was exceedingly uncomfortable with this. Perhaps it would be easier if she asked for the video files of their interviews for the other three in regards to the traitor Slick.

Deciding that she had tormented the clone enough for the day Aliette smiled at Jester. "Is there anything you would like to be known before a conclusion is reached?"

There a moment in which Jester hesitated before he sat a little straighter. "Sir, Chopper isn't a bad clone, a bad brother. He always tried to help us when he could and he was reliable in the field. He made bad choices but he wasn't a bad soldier."

Aliette stood up and bowed a few degrees to Jester. "Thank you for your time, you've been a help," she said honestly, "I look forward to our Formal Introduction."

Jester gave her a hesitant smile and saluted in returned. She was only half way through her Formals with her company, a personal interview held between soldiers and their commanding officers for a chance to get familiar with each other and their strengths and best placements. Most of the company she had cared for had volunteered to go first, only that day had she begun to see troopers she hadn't already met.

She had more scheduled for the afternoon, so she would take advantage of what time she had then to seek out the vids that were always kept for things like this.

She didn't go to find the other troops that had been in Chopper's squad, she would meet them on their own time and Jester's nerves still flickered under her skin every few minutes. They could be left alone, she just needed a few videos from Commander Cody, a no-nonsense trooper that worked closely with her Master. Her too, soon enough.

She would have to get used to his pragmatic personality and practical sense of dealing with things. That was part of his Center, Duty and Sensibility both holding strong.

It was interesting. All of the clones, for all of their similarities in face and voice, were very different from each other. Near all of them shared what she assumed was an ingrained line of Duty, but beyond that it was variable. There was Deka with his Humor, Long Shot with his Observation, and Cover who had died with his Loyalty.

It wasn't so obvious to others, maybe to fellow Jedi but not to extent that it was to her. To all Pantoran's. It was a born ability, to see the Center's of those around them. Hers was enhanced by the Force.

Aliette mused on these bits all through her walk to office that belonged to her fellow Commander.

She knocked thrice and waited patiently for an order of 'come in'. When she entered Cody gave her a cordial nod which she returned with a light bow, only a few degrees. A greeting for equals.

"Commander Ansa, what can I help you with?" he asked, sitting straighter in his seat. Like her Master his personal desk, issued to all officers, was cluttered with work. It was neat clutter though, everything in place with aligned edges and whatever organization he used.

"Commander Cody, I was wondering if I could get some files from you? Master Kenobi has asked me to help in Chopper's Court Martial, and I hoped to gain some insight from videos already taken from his squads previous interviews," she explained, her voice ever soft and formal.

She could feel his denial even before he shook his head. "Sorry, but I can't do that. The files are Classified higher than your clearance level."

There was the smallest purse of her lips. It didn't stop her from dipping her head without argument or question. She understood, classified was classified, and neither of them were able to change it.

"I see. Thank you for your time, sir."

He blinked his surprise but otherwise had no outward reaction to the calling.

"You're welcome. If you need anything else, or have questioned, my door is open to you."

This time Aliette awarded him a small smile. "Thank you, Commander. I'll remember that."

Even as she left his company she knew that she would probably just stick to her normal way of getting information. Reading and watching. She did not ask many questions, but she was quick to pick up on information and to store it away for later dissection. It was simply her way.

It wasn't going to work that well for her Plan B. She had been relying on the videos, but now…

It looked like she was going to have to do things the old fashioned way.

* * *

Even in his solitary space Chopper had heard of the new Commander, their Generals Padawan come to join the army. The guards that stood or sat outside the room he had been confined in had good things to say about her, especially her Healing prowess.

Chopper didn't know what to think of it. Their general, while an excellent leader and a strong Jedi, was not known for being any sort of doctor. It made him wonder why someone who Long Shot thought was so good at it was assigned to someone who relied as much on Bacta as they did.

He had let the musings fade in and out of his brain when it wasn't occupied with picking apart Slick, the way he'd acted and what he'd done, any sign that the five of them could have caught hold of to see what was coming.

He preferred thinking on a Commander he would never meet.

It wasn't like she would see him before he was shipped back to Kamino after they no doubt decided that he would be better of Reconditioned, a thought that made his jaw clench so tight he thought his teeth might break.

Chopper was working his jaw free when the door to the outside world split apart. Mismatched eyes darted to the door of his quarters, where he'd been told to stay until questioned, before they returned to the fall wall. It was Deka standing there in his copper trimmed armor, no doubt a terrible joke on the tip of his tongue.

Commander Cody had told him that they would bring him in for one last round of questioning before everything was finished. Chopper figured this would be it.

He was proven wrong when, out of the corner of his good eyes, something blue and grey appeared.

Only just looking he was able to see that it was woman. The blue was her skin, the grey was a loose shirt and skirt. She was standing next to Deka, her hands clasped in front of her with a belt falling sideways out from under the v of her shirt.

It was Light Saber attached to it that gave her away.

Commander Aliette Ansa, there to see the Collector. Chopper tensed further but rose like a good tropper, straight into attention.

He could feel as much as see her eyes, a gold like his right but deeper, dart from his face to the scarring on his head before they settled again on him. It was only years of training that prevented him from shifting like a Shiny under her gaze. He felt exposed, naked without his Armor. They had taken that from him as soon as Slick was in custody.

When she bowed to him he was surprised. It wasn't deep, only a few degrees down but Chopper had never had a higher up lower themselves to him before. It made him stand straighter.

A wave of warm air pressed against him from somewhere, like vaporized calm pushing against his skin. From the Jedi. He rejected it and snapped his eyes right to her, trying to hold them.

"Deka," she said, glancing to the clone at her side, "would you please step out?"

The smart mouthed clone frowned, an unusual look on his face. "You sure Commander?"

The blue woman nodded without further words.

Deka's shoulders lifted. "Alright, but call if you need me to step back in."

"I will," Commander Ansa said, moving into the room at the same time Deka moved out. The door shut with a glitchy click behind her. Lots of things went glitchy after Slick's betrayal. Lots of things.

When Commander Ansa looked back at him Chopper had to work not to turn the electric scar from her view. It was a habit he had determined Slick got him in to. He wanted to break that before he was sent back. Before he was Recycled. A last blow to the traitors legacy.

Maybe it was small, but it would have been something.

"I don't think we've met yet," her words tugged him out of his grim thoughts, "I'm Aliette Ansa, Master Kenobi's new Padawan."

Chopper stared at her for a few moments and was surprised when she looked away first.

"I've been told your name is Chopper?" she asked. He saw her hands go behind her back to rest, probably held together. What kind of Commander was this?

"Yes," he stated gruffly. Single word responses usually sent people off or ended conversations.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." A lie, obviously. Something polite the Jedi felt like telling him.

Not Jedi, Padawan. She was still in training. That was strange to think of.

"I've been asked to participate in your Court Martial." Her words were less fluid, less rehearsed now. He wasn't picking up tails and running with words the way most people did with prompting. Maybe if he threw her off enough she would just go back to her Master and they could get on with sending him to his fate.

There was one of the most awkward silences he'd ever been a part of for the next few minutes. Neither of them said anything, until he figured that a Padawan was more patient than he was stubborn.

"What else do you want to know?" he demanded.

A smile touched her features again, so small he could have missed the soft tilt of her mouth.

"I have the facts. All of them, about you and your squad. I would like more than facts now," she said.

It took him a minute to understand. "You want to know why I took the fingers." She could have just said so, it would have been easier. But Jedi, even not-yet-Jedi, were wrap-around in how they talked.

Commander Ansa nodded. "That's why I came. If you would tell me, I would appreciate it."

"And if I refuse?" he asked, meeting her eyes with an aggressive challenge. That alone could have gotten him a second trial.

"Then your reasoning with be yours alone," she said simply. Her weight shifted, leaning her back and away from him. Something like pride touched his chest before he crushed it. Was that how Slick felt every time Jester moved as far from him as he could, every time Sketch stuffed his drawings out of the Sergeants sight?

The thought made him sick.

"I wanted something back," he said slowly. When her head tilted with interest and genuine concern touched her eyes his mouth started moving without his telling it to. "They took my Brothers from me, my first squad, part of my head. I wanted something back. So I started taking back, from good shots, one hit kills on hard targets, rough fights that lost a lot of men. I took their fingers. Anything else was too big." His mouth shut with a click of teeth. He hadn't meant to say that much.

Chopper waited for some response. Watched her for any sign of how she felt. All he saw was a sadness in her eyes that made him balk in the face of pity. Rebelliously he dropped his attention and sat on his bunk, almost hitting his scarred head on the one on top of it. It was easier when he was staring at the floor.

There wasn't a reprimand.

"Did anyone else know you were doing it?" Commander Ansa asked. He didn't understand how anyone's voice could be that quiet and still echo around them in the silence.

Chopper's lips thinned into a line.

"Slick knew. And Gus," they had both known from the beginning, the Sergeant and his loyal pet. Not so loyal now.

He heard more than saw her dip herself to him again and wondered once more why she did that. He was on trial and she was a Commander. There was no need for it. If anything he should be bowing to her, if Tropper's did that.

"Thank you for speaking with me, Chopper. I hope to see you again."

He couldn't imagine why, but he nodded at her back when she left the room.

If he saw her again, he didn't know if he would be able to keep his tongue behind his teeth again, if he would start blurting things out in a full explanation of everything he'd ever done wrong, the way he'd wanted to just then.

It was probably a Jedi trick, messing with his head. Getting him to talk more than he wanted to.

Chopper fell back against the bunk and closed his eyes, breathing in at last the peace the Padawan had offered him when they started.

* * *

Aliette made her way back to the room she shared with Ahsoka, the emptiness of Christophsis settling deep into her bones while her mind worked away at the problem at hand.

Chopper.

He hadn't been malicious, for all he had made it obvious that he didn't want to talk to her, or probably anyone for that matter. His scars had intrigued her more than anything else, pulled at the medic inside of her until she was holding her hands behind her to keep from trying to reach out and see them, to check their damage and how far it had gone.

Troopers didn't normally have scars, not with Bacta's abilities and their own enhancements. Only truly bad injuries resulted in them, and that was one of the most interesting ones she had seen on any person, clone or otherwise.

Shame washed through her for her thoughts. He had been hurt and instead of concern her only thoughts were on curiosity.

Aliette shook her head and sat on her bunk, tucking her legs under her. Her shoulder had begun to hurt again, a phantom pain that happened sometimes after Force Healing. The Body remembered what should have been there while the Mind and Soul knew it to be gone.

The Pantoran closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, letting the stagnated Force of the planet twist around and inside of her, bringing with it calm and clarity. Or so she hoped, for the latter.

Meditation was something she was good at.

It was something you had to be good at to Heal. To Mend one had to let go of their Anger and Hurt and any ill intention, or else it would seep into the Healing and make things Worse than they had been. Push the wound open, tear the flesh apart.

Master Che had been very firm in her teachings, and had forced all of her pupils to watch recordings of what happened to those who Healed with a Grudge still in their hearts.

Even then, ten years later, the thought made Aliette more than willing to let everything fall away into the Force at least once a day. That day she did not let go the way she usually did. She called the Force to her and asked, softly, hopefully, for Guidance in the matter of the Court Martial. Her Master was trusting her with it, she did not want to let him down.

The Force whispered through her mind, fragments of thoughts and advice that whispered just beyond her reach.

Aliette opened herself to its wisdom and to the words it might have for her, breathing in the sense of Everything that the was All. It swirled in her chest, spread through her limbs. It was muted in comparison to the Temple but it was something at least. More than she thought she could get.

She breathed in the Force and let it curl inside of her, familiar and welcome. It was calm and soft, held onto her in the most comforting way she had ever know. Inside of her mind she cast out her questions, beseeching answers from the world around her.

The Force knew better than she what the fate of Chopper should be.

She did let herself hope that it was favorable, that it wasn't sending him back or anything horrible like she knew he must have been expecting, she had felt it the instant she walked into the room.

Perhaps the reason she wanted so badly to give Chopper a second chance was because of more empathy than sympathy in her part. Less Compassion, like Jedi were supposed to have, and more History of the Personal variety.

She let go of the past and pushed to the future, asking guidance in the choice she was about to make.

Aliette could only hope it was the right one.


	5. Chapter 5

**Bit of a short chapter, whoops!**

 **Reviews:**

 **JeDe In NighT: Happy birthday!**

 **Tatsuki Vermilion: Thank you, I'm glad you like it! And actually, you're completely right!**

 **Chapter 5: Slick's Squad**

* * *

Commander Cody, Captain Rex and her own Master stood in front of her, or rather sat behind an overly long desk. The first two knew the entire story behind the treason and the reveal of Choppers break of the rules.

Chopper stood behind her, his nerves choking the air around them. The rest of the squad he had been a part of was waiting outside of their meeting room, just as nervous.

Aliette took a deep breath, pulling the Force inside of herself to calm the beginning of a racing heart. She let the air back out, let the Force flow out of her and brush against the clones. The ones in the hallway accepted it into themselves. Chopper stood straighter in rejection of the offered ease.

"Padawan," her Master addressed her, "We would like to hear your recommendations now."

Aliette bowed slightly, an automatic response she had never really been able to break herself of.

"Of course."

She had spent hours debating what she should do, meditating on the issue and, after a lot of reading on what was normally done and what rules and regulations said, she had finally come up with something.

"Due to the extenuating circumstances surrounding the charges against the accused it is my opinion that Chopper should be given a clean slate," she announced, as formal and confident as she could force herself to sound. The surprise around the room was unanimous. "Because of the lack of reliability of the source, I believe that all demerits and punishments should be removed from his record. This does not mean that he is free of responsibility for his own actions, and as punishments for those mistakes I believe that in addition to removing all negative records so too should go the positive. Rank, medals, and so on. "

There was silence for a few moments, all eyes were still fixed on her. Aliette focused on her calm and the Force before she started to fear what they thought. The fear that she was wrong.

Her Master watcher her carefully with pale blue eyes, making her doubt herself. She could feel the surprise and the conflict in the clone officers, coming off of them palpably. She didn't push deeper for their thoughts, that would be rude and intrusive and that was not in her to do.

The Pantoran began to shift from one foot to the other before she forced herself not to and instead clasped her hands behind her back. She hated the lack of confidence she had in herself and in her own decisions. It was unfit for a Jedi.

Perhaps that was why she had never been chosen to be a Padawan before.

The second guessing and the rising anxiety were dispersed when he master nodded slowly and started stroking his beard.

"It's not a bad idea," he said. "In fact, I think it would work fine."

Commander Cody cleared his throat. "Sir, if I may? Perhaps we should add another condition. Because of the circumstances we should put the entire squad under surveillance with a high ranking officer, to be cautious."

Aliette could feel the offense from Chopper, and the anger, and something quieter and more dangerous than either one of those.

Acceptance.

He didn't open his mouth to object.

"Aliette," her Master said, bringing the girl to stand at Attention, "I trusted you to come up with a decision for this case, and you have. I can tell you put a lot of thought into this. I'll back your decision, and Cody's as well. He had a good point."

The girl lowered her head. "Thank you, Master," she said quietly, smiling softly where it wouldn't be seen. She hadn't done badly.

Her master was watching her thoughtfully, his fingers still working over his beard.

"You don't have much experience with military, do you?" he asked suddenly, startling the new Padawan into a jerking her chin higher. The girl blinked rapidly for a minute before she shook her head, worry returning. He had said that her choice was acceptable, she didn't' want him to decide something else because of her lack of knowledge in the face army command.

"No, Master," all she had was a rudimentary knowledge based off of lessons the temple provided and what she had learned while trying to figure out what to do about Chopper's case.

The smile on his face made her skin crawl with the plan it betrayed.

"We need someone of rank to keep an eye on Chopper and his squad, and you need someone who knows how things work to help you get adjusted," she could see Commander Cody and Captain Red look at each other and felt not only their surprise but Chopper's as well when her Master's plan became obvious.

"What do you think, Padawan?" he asked.

Aliette hesitated a moment. People didn't normally ask her opinion, it was happening a lot lately. It threw her off quite a bit. Slowly she looked to Chopper, trying to read past his general disbelief for what he thought. Without pushing with the Force she couldn't get anything else. She didn't press it.

Gold eyes met blue, her chin lifted slightly. They had knowledge that she did not, she had power that they didn't. They would need to work together to get through the war, the way that already were going to. This just meant that she would be working more closely than she would have otherwise.

"I think it would be… mutually beneficial, to work with Chopper and his brothers until further notice," she decided. Her voice was softer than she would have liked, less assured. The words were already out of her mouth so she couldn't take it back and try again.

Words were like that.

"Excellent," her Master smiled at her. "Later on, you and I have hair care to get to."

A smile grew across her face, warmth filled her chest.

This would be just fine.

* * *

She was in the medical unit when they arrived. Chopper was in the front, still looking a bit dazed like he had when he'd left the office earlier.

Aliette looked up at them briefly before she went back to checking on the trooper under her care, unconscious from a blow to the head during an accident unloading supplies earlier that day.

She had his fingers curled into her while she lay her hand across his forehead, checking for any damage done. There were no injuries she could find, just a bit of bruising and some swelling she pushed down before it hurt the trooper. His tense body relaxed once she did and slowly the young Pantoran drew away.

She picked up at data pad and tapped the green square in the corner, jotting down a note in his general health and how long she estimated it would take for him to wake up. It wasn't even a concussion, he was alright.

When she turned to the squad she bowed a few degrees, startling them all.

Aliette straightened up and smiled at them softly.

"Hello," she greeted, "I'm Aliette Ansa. I look forward to working with you."

Two of her men looked at each other, Jester found the wall over her ear more interesting than she and the fourth was staring at her hard from his Attention. Only Chopper was unsurprised by her greeting, though he didn't react much to it beyond shifting his weight to his left foot instead of his right.

"General Kenobi said we were being reassigned to you," one of them said.

The other of the apparent pair was frowning, bitterness in every line of his face.

Aliette chose not to comment on it.

"That was the decided course of action," she confirmed. The Pantoran turned a smile to the two she already knew. "Hello again Jester, Chopper."

Jester stood straighter. "Ma'am."

Chopper glanced at her then away. Neither of them were looking directly at her, though Jester was good at pretending he was. Aliette didn't mind. It was easier for her to not meet their eyes as well.

She looked over the other three, the ones she had never met, and tried to get a read. Most of their Centers were hidden by unease or distrust, a touch of anger held the frowning one.

"I'm sorry," she began carefully, "I'm afraid I can't match faces to names with you three. Gus, Punch, and Sketch, yes?"

The first speaker stepped forwards. "I'm Sketch, Sir. This," he nodded to the unhappy Trooper to his side, "Is Punch."

The last one, the one that had yet to break his anxious Attention, cleared his throat. "I'm Gus."

The former Sergeant's Second. Aliette made sure not to show any negative emotions to him.

"It's good to meet you," she said again. "I hope to learn from and fight along with all of you."

Punch clicked his tongue to his teeth, showing his Irritation. "You can stop that," he grumbled, "We know why we're here."

"Punch," Sketch cut at him. He looked to Aliette with some Apprehension. The Padawan remained unphased, visibly. Jester even looked right at her before away again. He had started to rub his fist once more.

"Good," she said easily, "Then that will make things simpler. You know that you are under suspicion and I know that I really do have limited experience with military matters. I hope for this arrangement to be mutually beneficial."

She was talking a lot lately. She would be very happy when she didn't have to do that anymore.

Sadly, Commanders often had to, well, Command. And that meant speaking. Aliette looked to Jester and pushed another offering of calm to him. He took it and she felt a small sliver of gratitude push through the air.

"You're a Jedi," Punch was frowning at her. "How inexperienced could you be?"

Aliette looked down from him, a downward turn to her lips. Her lack of knowledge would make her less useful. She had been lucky so far, but she knew better than to rely on luck.

"I am a Padawan, old as I look. The first battle I was ever a participant in was the final stand for this planet," she admitted.

Surprise filtered through the air.

"Your first?" Gus repeated. There was a note of disbelief to his voice.

"That's right," she nodded. "I had training, of course, but I am a Healer. I had no need to be on the battlefield until I was assigned to be Master Kenobi's Padawan."

"But even Medics go on the field," Gus objected. Aliette bowed her head and said nothing more. Their medics did. She hadn't left the Temple in fifteen years.

Sketch shifted his posture just enough to bring their attention to him. His chin had lifted. His Center was revealed. Adaptability, Duty, and frail Loyalty.

"If that's the case, Sir, I would be glad to assist you however I can."

Aliette awarded him with a small smile and inclined her head, grateful.

They would be good companions, she could feel it.

* * *

The room was emptier without Slick there.

It wasn't the same sort of emptiness that came from a Brother who had died on the field or the emptiness off being the only trooper left in the room while the rest were away. Jester knew both of those feeling more intimately than he would have ever liked.

This was a different sort of absence entirely.

The desk in the corner that had once belonged to the sergeant was swept clean of anything and everything. It was almost like he had never been there at all.

Jester knew though, that that would never be the case. He knew that Punch and Sketch would stick as close as possible for as much time as they could, even if they weren't assigned opposing hours and rigs anymore. He knew that Chopper would always wake up silently and watch to make sure he wasn't the first before sitting.

He knew that the rough scars on the back of his own knuckles would never go away.

He knew that he would never stop cleaning his Blaster thrice over twice no matter how long Slick was gone.

Somethings could never go away. The lingering presence of Slicks eyes, forever boring into him for any signs of weakness or sources of ridicule, Jester didn't think those would ever stop prickling the skin on his arms.

Some part of him was still in disbelief that it was over. That Slick was found out, that he wasn't coming back. That they were free from his oppressive stare and firm hand.

Jester had always had strong hands. More than even his other Hatchmates his hands were steady and still when he needed them to be, good for working. Slick had said that were too stiff to be good for anything. That was why his blaster was always messy. Always.

He shook those thoughts out. Jester had to wonder if his new Commander had steady hands too. She was Healer, that was as good as a Medic wasn't it? And they always had firm grips.

Her hands had looked too small for that, Commander Ansa's. Aliette's.

She was small, smaller than him, smaller than the General who was shorter than any clone already. Jester figured she was just over a meter and a half. Surely she was younger than she said she was. No one could naturally be that little unless they were a Youngling.

To be fair, he was barely over ten, but his aging was accelerated and his mind matched it.

That same mind was keeping him awake later than he should have been, considering that he was going to be serving someone entirely knew when the sun rose on the crystal city.

Jester sighed softly and tried to get his mind to shut up for a bit, just a few hours. That was all he had let and then it was his first day under Commander Ansa.

From in the dark he was surprised to hear Chopper's voice resound, and the breaths of two other Clones catch at his words.

"She's not bad."

Jester smiled to himself.

Chopper didn't like many people. If he said she was alright, she probably was.

* * *

The two Jedi sat in Obi Wan's quarters in the Christophsis Base, both cross legged on the floor in the middle of the room. Their knees didn't quite touch, their posture was perfectly mimicked. Backs straight, hands clasped in their respective laps and eyes closed.

No words were spoken as the Force pulled and pushed around them, twisting with life and feeling. It pulsed through the pair, aligned their heart beats and their breath. The Force surrounded them, enveloped and penetrated deep into their bones. With the twisting of the air, with a shift in gravity, three long strands of hair separated themselves from the rest behind her ear, pulling mauve locks into a slowly over lapping twist.

With the weaving of her braid came together their thoughts, a Bond that only Master and Padawan could ever have spinning together with her hair.

Obi Wan was allowed in his Padawan's mind, a space of fluttering with thoughts and the ease of the Force. Hope and fear battled somewhere far off, clips of worry and of stress flickered into his space. Mostly it was calm, and relief.

He let her step into his thoughts as well, allowed Aliette to touch his mind the way Anakin did. He had never been able to sever their Bond, he wasn't sure he would be able to this time either. Already he could feel himself growing fond of his new Learner. She was starting to like him too, or perhaps she liked the idea of a Master.

They would work on that, they would work a lot together.

She must have heard that thought for her own calmed almost immediately after he thought it.

He felt when she thought of the future, understood her fears that there was a reason she had never been chosen before, that he might send her back. He sent a wave of assurance back to her. That wasn't going to happen.

He breathed in.

She breathed out.

A leather cord left his hand to wrap firmly around the thin braid they had formed.

Gold eyes opened to meet blue at the same time pink hair dropped back, thumping softly against her shoulder. Obi Wan smiled at his new apprentice. Her hair hung, the braid separated now from the rest of it. Each strand was perfectly placed, one for the Master, one for the Padawan, and one for the Force, all three coming together in perfectly crafter unity.

It was official now.


	6. Chapter 6

**Reviews;**

 **TGP212th: Yep! The poor boys deserve to have someone nice.**

 **Pink ranger 13: Thank you!**

 **JaDe In NighT: Yep, he was hella worried and almost ended up as a farmer instead of a fighter. She still has to get used to him though, so she doesn't know what kind of Master he is yet!**

 **Tatsuki Vermilion: I always thought the braids were neat! I'm glad you enjoyed it, and thought it was suspenseful! I'm not sure about spelling and grammar, I don't have a beta right now so there are probably some slips!**

 **Godlikelover16: Thank you very much! I'm actually not huge on fight scenes' as far as they're pretty hard to write, so part of my avoidance is that I'm actually lazy :p**

 **Chapter 6: Shifts**

* * *

With a braid in her hair Aliette held her chin aloft, a weight of years lifted off of her chest. When she met with her make-shift medic team in the ward that morning Flint and Long Shot greeted her with grins and open hands. She had brushed her finger tips along their palms and they along hers before their fingers curled into linked grek* shapes. She squeezed their fingers.

"Did anyone else come in last night?" she asked once their hands had dropped. The man she had been inspecting the day before was gone, his bed empty. The Force told her he had been gone for a few hours.

"No, Ma'am," Flint reported. When she gave a soft wave he took her permission to sit on the nearest cot. Long Shot had already accepted her leniency and was cross legged on the one across from it. He hadn't gotten up from there when she entered.

"We're getting new Medics today," Long Shot reported. He had gotten another dark line added to the crescents, leaving the outward curve down over his jaw. Aliette smiled softly at the sight.

For her people tattoos were special, sacred. They gave away a name which told of ones place in life. She adored seeing them on other people, especially those that had meaning behind them. The Kiffar understood Pantoran beliefs, to a much lesser degree, and the Mirlians always had the most interesting stories behind their designs. Zabraks too Aliette enjoyed listening to, and the markings on Togruta had always caught her eye.

It was what had begun the friendship she shared with young Ahsoka Tano, so many years ago, when the youngling had come to the Hall with a lekku damaged in a mock Light Saber battle. She had thought the facial markings to be wonderful, and said as much. Ahsoka's lekku stripes had darkened considerably. It had been before the little one understood her prodigal status and gained more confidence in herself.

"You won't be stuck with just the droids now?" she asked, glancing to the corner where one such metal creature stood. They were offline when they weren't needed, and most of the clones didn't like them much. Aliette didn't blame them for their distrust.

"What, you're not going to stick around and make sure they know what they're doing?" Flint's surprise was warranted. She had already made it well known that she preferred being in the Med Bay to being in her own quarters.

Aliette smiled at him. "I will be here. But I'm sure that my Master will also want my attention, and I do have other responsibilities as a Commander." Unfortunately. Medic Bay's were so much more familiar to her than leading. It was a grim comfort for her to be in them, surrounded by the wounded.

"Oh." Flint's chin dropped with a touch of Embarrassment. Aliette waved it away with a soft push of the Force. There was nothing for him to be embarrassed about just for not thinking of her other jobs.

"Commander," Long Shot called, "Are you really in charge of that squad?"

He didn't need to specify which one he was talking about. Everyone had heard the rumors of Slick's squad. No matter how much they tried to cover it up, something like that could not be kept completely under wraps. People would always talk and gossip was the life blood of the republic.

Aliette pursed her lips together. She liked her squad. She knew that they were looked down upon now by others of the Company. That didn't make her any less willing to work with them.

"Yes," she said after a moment, "I will be."

The two clones that had worked for her mending their brothers did not seem happy with that. They exchanged glances, ones that held meaning Aliette wasn't entirely able to read just yet, even with the Force helping her along.

"Sir, those men are-"

"About to walk in," she cut in. She didn't like interrupting. She didn't want to head them speaking ill of her squad now either. Especially not when they were seconds from entering the room.

Right on cue the door slid open, revealing Gus standing behind it. He hadn't been close enough to hear them talking but the sudden snap of two jaws was enough to set his own in a hard line. Aliette didn't envy him. She knew what it was to walk into a room when people had been discussing you moments before.

To try and lessen the blow she offered him a kind smile and an open hand. He stared at the offered limb like it was completely foreign.

With her cheeks dusting violet Aliette withdrew her hand. Long Shit and Flint knew her habits. Those at the Temple knew her habits. Gus had only just met her.

He wouldn't know what it was she was offering.

"Good morning," she greeted, dipping her head to him.

He was straight shouldered and tight faced. "Good morning Sir."

Aliette said no more. When Long Shot pushed a pad to her she accepted, pulling up the front screen. Two clone faces stared up at her with numerical designations beside each. She barely glanced at those. Numbers were irrelevant to her. What she needed was other information.

Straight from Kamino, both of them. A sergeant and a regular medic, neither of which had ever been exposed to the field. They were as green as she was.

Honestly, Aliette would have preferred someone who had fought at least two more battles than she had.

It didn't matter in the end. Who was she to complain of lack of practice? Given she had more as an actual doctor than any of the clones did but that was less important when one was in the middle of a fire fight.

"Commander," it was Gus again.

She looked up at him, her head tilting enough her braid tried to curl under the collar of her shirt. As uncomfortable as the poking was it also made her smile with a sliver of illegal pride. She was a Padawan now.

"Yes, Gus?" she asked.

He looked distinctly uncomfortable. "We were wondering about our new shifts, Sir. You're in charge of them and we haven't received any orders."

Aliette startled. "Shifts?" she asked without meaning to. She did not like to admit her ignorance.

The three men around her shifted. She knew immediately that she had revealed herself again an amateur and felt her stomach twist unpleasantly. Her mouth followed suite into a frown.

"You're clueless," Gus realized.

Long Shot and Flint both leaned forwards to snap her defense.

She did not give them the chance. They were cut off with a self-deprecating smile and a shift of her shoulders.

"Yes," she agreed softly, "I did tell you."

They were staring at her. She didn't meet eyes. Internally she berated herself. Where was the confidence she summoned when people needed Healing? Where was the self-assured grace that Jedi were expected to have?

Gus shifted awkwardly from foot to foot. Flint was openly surprised. Aliette didn't blame him, he had seen her working in her area of expertise when they first met. Long Shot was frowning deeply while he pulled on the back plate of his gauntlet. It was a Thinking Habit she had noticed he had, like her Master pulling on his beard.

Her new subordinate cleared his throat awkwardly before he explained, "Shifts are times when a trooper works outside of battle. Patrols or inventory, technology checks, things like that get done. Depending on what shift you're set on you go to a different area of whatever base you happen to be at. There are four shifts in a standard day, sometimes more or less depending on a planets rotation. Sergeants assign shifts to the men in their squads unless a higher ranking officer decides to change the rotation."

Aliette listened carefully, nodding slowly with her understanding. When he was done she dipped a few degrees to the soldier.

"I see. Thank you for explaining. I'm sorry, I don't know my duties yet. I'll try to learn quickly," she promised, lowering her head to the clone. When his discomfort became apparent she stood straighter. It was so strange to be in charge, to be expected to give orders instead of just take them the way she had for so much of her life.

She would have to get used to it, she supposed. There was nothing else to be done. If she didn't make a good leader they might send her back.

The Pantoran withheld the urge to begin shifting nervously. She was twenty, she was too old to be so afraid of rejection. Jedi did not fear.

 _Jedi do not fear._

Aliette tried to take that truth to heart.

"If you would be willing to show me how, or direct me to someone who knows, I would like to learn how to set up shifts," she said after a moment. Jedi did not fear rejection, they certainly did not fear being trouble for other people, and especially not those under their leadership and guidance.

Whatever good her guidance did she wasn't entirely sure, but she knew it was expected that she offer good direction, if ever she was to be a Knight.

Gus nodded hesitantly.

"I think Sergeant Gap would be able to explain it to you," he said. Aliette could tell his picked his words carefully. She wasn't sure why.

When Long Shot shifted she remembered that Gap was his Sergeant, in charge of the squad he had been on and was in the process of reforming after the Battle. Only Gap and Long Shot were left of it. Liner was gone now too.

Aliette looked to the other clone, the only one in the room with any tattoos.

"Do you think he would have time?" she asked. Long Shot looked caught between disliking Gus and wanting to assist her. She was touched that was in his Nature. It was a kindness she enjoyed seeing.

Very slowly Long Shot nodded. "Yes, I think he would be willing. He likes you."

A soft warmth curled in her chest at his words and Aliette smiled a bit wider than normal, at all three of them.

"Then I think I might seek him out, after we get our new doctors in."

After all, she had a lot to learn.

* * *

When Gap was thinking he had a tendency to press his tongue into his namesake. A mishap in a training simulation had left him missing his bottom front tooth. Ever since then, since the first teasing jibes of his brothers at the alteration, he had pushed his tongue against the bared gum. He'd even taken it for his calling, when originally he had just been 5079. Gap was better, he figured.

He always felt a little funny when one of the Jedi used his name though. Kaminoans usually used their numbers. Sha'ak Ti had called him Gap once or twice, when she had singled him out to be a leader, and Kenobi was good enough about their names. But neither of them was as vehement about using their names as the little Commander they had been given.

The one sitting across from him in the mess in soft grays that didn't take away from the perfectly smooth blue of her skin or the soft shades of pink in her hair.

Gap had always enjoyed the look of females over males. They were softer, even the ones that had edges and bared teeth. He especially enjoyed watching the emotions cross those few kind women he had been allowed to interact with during their protection of the Christophsian Refugees.

He found that the Commander's emotions were more muted than theirs, than even the General.

She was easy to be around, if you didn't mind the oddity of her gentle words and true questions. There was something about the way she held herself though that reminded him of some of the more downtrodden evacuates he had helped to escort. He couldn't quite put his finger on what it was though.

"Shifts," he repeated slowly, a hint of a lisp ticking his lips. It wasn't very prominent, but he'd had reprimands for it before. The Commander nodded, as if she didn't notice it at all.

"Yes."

Gap worried the tip of his canine next to the missing tooth. He'd never had a higher up ask him this. Of course he'd only ever had three Jedi leaders, and the first wasn't much to say of. General Kenobi was nice, he understood better how to command humans. Their Zabrak Jedi General, the first the 212th had served under, had had a hard time with that. In turn they had had a difficult time following him.

Not obeying. They followed his orders without question. His orders were just unclear and his words meant to inspire his own kind.

Gap wondered if the blue Commander in front of him would have the same issues. She would have more if she didn't understand the simple things.

"No one told you how to assign them?" he had to ask again. His jaw clicked when he realized that was impertinent and he apologized with a swift, "I'm sorry Commander. This is just unusual."

The young woman seemed unphased, her mouth curved into a kind smile that made Gap's pulse quicken a pair of beats. He mentally shook himself. He wasn't the only clone who reacted to pretty women, but this one was his CO. He needed respect, not thoughts of her smile or her eyes.

"It's fine, Sergeant. I'm sorry to bother you, but would you please show me how to assign them?" she asked. There was something in her voice that struck him as funny. It took Gap a moment to understand that it was because she wasn't ordering him. She was honestly asking.

Gap awarded the Padawan with a smile.

"I would be honored, Commander. Do you have your Data Pad with you?" he asked.

Mauve hair dripped over her shoulders with the bow of her head and grey cloth shuffled when she pulled the pad out.

"Okay. If you log in you'll see a list of your subordinates, set into squads. If you have your own squad they should all be first on the list," he instructed. He waited until she was nodding again, her pad unlocked to the section, before he went on. "If you select them you get their basic info, which you can edit however you want, and at the bottom of everything there's their assignments."

"I see," she said softly.

Gap nodded. "You can edit that too, since you have clearance as their CO. Assign what hours you want them where, and what specifically you want them to be doing. Those would be their shifts. Like any regular work schedule," or so he had heard.

The Jedi apparently knew as much about regular work as he did for she just nodded and smiled at him again.

"Thank you, Sergeant. I appreciate your help," she told him, lowering her head. It had taken most of them a while to understand when she did that it was in place of the bows she bestowed up on the Generals.

Gap smiled back at her. He was starting to like his new Commander. She was really, truly new, but she treated them well. Like people.

"Any time you have a question, my door will always be open, Commander Ansa."

Again he heard her words of thanks.

Again he admired the softness in her face when she said them.

Genuine.

* * *

Aliette was sitting on the bunk in the room she didn't have to share with Ahsoka anymore, her legs tucked under her. She loved the soft, easy clothe that military fatigues were made from. It was cheap, of course, from some Outer Rim world where they could scam the inhabitants. It was still nice, probably the mellowest thing the soldiers had.

She felt bad for enjoying it. She had Jedi clothing, which were almost as soft, but there something nice about the room the pants left her and the way they fit. She should have been happy with what was hers. Jedi were selfless, after all.

Liking what was not given to you was selfish, wasn't it?

Technically these clothes were not given, they were just in the room and they hung on her hips, and well past her heels.

Aliette sighed softly. She had been up too long, been doing too much. It was idling her thoughts and making it harder to focus on the job at hand. Mainly, understanding and assigning her men.

She would have liked to know more than she did, would have liked to have something to compare it to. All she could make connections with was her own time as an Initiate and her years on assignment in the Medi Corps, which was always following what Master Che said and spending her days or nights in the Medical Wing. It was split three ways for them there. Early morning, full day, and evening into night. Not so different, she supposed. She had just never been the one in charge of planning. That was left to Master Che and her Padawan Arlo, before he had been Knighted some years before.

A large part of Aliette had hoped that, once Arlo was a Knight, Master Che might want her as a Padawan.

Her hopes were never realized. Master Che taught her the way she taught all others, no matter how eager she was to prove her abilities or how real those abilities were.

Aliette shook her head. She couldn't think like that. She was no better than her peers. All she could do was mend skin. That did not make a Knight. Even Ahsoka, her eight years junior, was more talented. Why would the Chief Healer even consider taking her on?

Before her thoughts could spiral further into self-pity a knock came upon her door.

The girl was surprised to find that, lost in her musings, she had missed the arrival of Punch. How distracted had she been?

She waved her hand, used a frivolous push of the Force to set down the button that would allow her underling entrance. Punch came in, his goatee showing signs of fresh grooming while the rest of him showed weariness, as well as preparation for confrontation if the tension in his shoulders was anything to go by.

"Punch," she welcomed, sitting higher up. Her shoulders rolled back and her knees drew together in a more modest post. "Is there something you need?"

His jaw tightened and loosened a number of times in a scant few minutes for which he was silent. Aliette did not rush him, she stayed quiet on her own, waiting with all the patience due to a Jedi.

Padawan.

"Sketch," he blurted at last, the word seeming to burst from his chest with built up tension.

The Pantoran pursed her lips in thought, and confusion. A single name was little to go on, so she waited again, trusting Punch to tell her what he needed her to know.

"On my shifts," he took a breath so large his armor rose and fell with it. "I want to be with Sketch on our shifts."

Aliette searched his eyes, trying to understand. They were close, she had known that already. She had been contemplating how it would look, and what would happen with them staying together already. They could not all be traitors, not the entire squad, and the pair would not have been able to be one a turn coat without the other knowing, if they were friends enough Punch would risk asking their time be spent with one another.

He met her gaze with challenge before his eyes fell. There was fear there, worry. He had risked something, though she did not know yet what.

Time only would tell.

"Alright," she said at last, "Do you prefer early or late shifts?"

His chin jerked and his eyes snapped to hers. His surprise was palpable. All at once his heels were together and his shoulders were squared in the hardest Attention she had seen on him yet, startling the little Padawan.

"Thank you, Sir."

It was the first time he had called her Sir. It was the first time he had addressed her with any name or title, in fact.

Aliette's smile tilted her head side ways. "You're welcome, Punch. If there's anything else, I hope you feel you can come to me with it," she said genuinely.

There was still distrust in his eyes. Instead of agreeing he said again, "Thank you, Sir," before bowing out in the way of Military.

Aliette watched him go, thinking hard on the information he had just revealed to her. Was that why he had been nervous? Why he had hesitated with his request? Because it would tell her that they were close?

More questions stacked up, unknowns pushing in on the sides of her brain and twisting into her mind until she couldn't think in a straight line and went into worrying circles. That was not a good reaction, that was not a healthy fear.

 _What,_ she wondered _, could have put it into a Courageous Clone Trooper?_

A darker thought wormed its way into her head.

 _Not a what, but a who._

* * *

When Punch came in Sketch was sitting on his bunk, the one tucked into the corner. Punch's was next to his, just barely far enough away to stay in regulations. Between him and the door.

Him and Slick.

Except Slick was gone and when Punch came in he looked too dazed for the sergeant to have made a return in physical form. His eyes went right through Sketch when he looked at him before they lit up and a smile, the first true smile Sketch had seen on him in far too long, spread across his face.

"Punch?" he asked, a little weary. Something good must have happened. Either that or his Brother had finally lost his mind. But that was impossible, they were designed to withstand stresses of all kinds.

"She said yes," he reported.

It made no sense to Sketch though. 'She' had to be the Commander, Ansa. What she had agreed to Sketch was still drawing a blank about.

"Said yes to what?" he encouraged with a wave of his line.

The thin metal was warm from his grip, dark liquid marked its end and the pad of Flimsy he had settled on his lap, describing visually the pattern that had formed inside his head. It was one of hundreds, thousands probably.

One of the only ones still intact.

Punch dropped into his bunk with a grace that was exclusive to him and started unsnapping his armor. Arms first, then knees. He was so excited his started fumbling, at which point Sketch rose and took over, stripping his Brother of the white protection.

"What did she say yes to," he repeated. Sometimes Punch forgot to reply with his mouth and not just his mind.

"To us having the same shifts."

When the words registered Sketch fumbled as well. He was surprised she agreed, but more than that, he was surprised by something else.

"You asked her?" he demanded incredulously. They had made that same request months ago and look at where it got them, never on a single place at the same time, not for even one minute unless it was a battle. Sketch wouldn't have asked.

Knowledge was power, information gave people something over others.

This was no different.

Now she had something to hold over them, if she so chose.

"She said we could stay together," Punch smiled at him and Sketch sighed, giving up. He was too happy, his Brother, his favorite Hatchmate. He would have had to know just as well what he'd done, but if Punch thought it worth the risk…

"Good," he said at last, finishing the last clasp on Punch's thigh guards. "It'll be good to be with you again."

Punch clapped his shoulder. "Better than good," he declared.

Sketch smiled back at his Brother and together they put the armor where it belonged, inspection ready as all their bunks and up keeping was.

Things were looking up.

*Grek is the G in the Basic Alphabet.


	7. Chapter 7

**I have changed a few minor things here. Fair warning.**

 **Reviews;**

 **Godlikelover16: It's going to be a bit of both! I'm definitely going to be including parts of the show, and following it pretty closely for the purpose of my not royally screwing up the timeline, but I am also going to be throwing in a lot of things of my own. It won't be too apparent at first, but later on you'll see a lot.**

 **JaDe In NighT: Easier said than done!**

 **Tatsuki Vermilion: Oh yes. She's missing a lot of things in her educations that she's going to have to learn about fast if she's going to make it long as a Commander. She's not really suited for Military at all, which will make it all the more difficult with her soft heart and fears.**

 **SupremeGeneralJoker: You are very welcome! I finally have some more of it!**

 **romanov16: Thank you! It's not very soon but it is updated!**

 **Chapter 7: Malevolence**

* * *

Aliette had never encountered something so chaotic, loud, and equally organized as leading an army off of a planet and onto the Negotiator. Crates with legs marched up the ramp, clones scrambled to get any last minute, half-forgotten additions to the packings. The men knew exactly what they were doing, so she did her best to stay out of the way and remained, for the most part, with the medical equipment.

Her new squad stayed with her, and took to the requests she made for assistance very well. Chopper was mostly silent, Punch and Sketch stuck to themselves, and Jester was usually at her elbow, his nerves still high but his willingness to help overriding them.

Gus was different from the others, who obeyed as if she were giving orders. If she was being honest he was, by far, the most helpful, or at least the most informative.

If she did something against the regulations she barely knew he would call her on it, if she did something wrong he would say so, if she said something foolish he would scoff at her.

It raised the ire of the others, who clearly did not get along with him, but Aliette was thankful for the blatant disrespect. It made it easier for her to learn, to improve, when people told her she was wrong.

When she worked within the rules that the clones were taught it made their teamwork far smoother.

Still, she sometimes disliked the tone he used. Like she was somehow worth less due to her lack of knowledge. Which, in reality, she probably was.

The young woman let out a soft sigh when she hoisted up another crate. It was larger than it was actually heavy, and with fortifications of the Force she had little trouble maneuvering it into the ship and the small platform that would race it to the section of the ship that held the Med Bay.

Aliette would be consulting her master on whether or not it would be acceptable to have her room as close to there as possible. There were rooms in the Hall of Healing that were inhabited by those acolytes that were most dedicated to their work, one of which had been assigned to be hers permanently until she was made Padawan. She thought that the same might be said for medics on Cruisers, but she wasn't entirely sure.

She could have asked any of her men, but she felt she had made enough of a fool of herself for that day, proven her inadequacy repeatedly. She would rather not lose any more respect than she already had.

Or perhaps she would.

Was it arrogant to think that? Was it selfish?

Aliette shook off her thoughts to focus on the task at hand, before she ran over Jester with the chest they were tasked with getting into place. It wouldn't do to cause injuries to her own men.

"Commander?" Jester still didn't look her in the eye. Over her right shoulder.

"Yes?" she asked, raising her voice just enough to be heard over the chatter of the other men in the hallway. Ships were always so loud.

Jester turned his eyes further away from her.

"Did you really say it was okay for Punch and Sketch to have shifts together?" he asked. His shoulders were tense in a way that was not needed for lifting.

Aliette's chin dipped in a nod. "Yes, I did. Was there a request you had?" she asked, trying to make sure her voice conveyed an honest desire to help.

"No, Sir," he said immediately. Then added softer, "Thank you."

Aliette smiled at him and tapped the crate lightly with a forefinger, signaling that they should move on. Jester caught her sign quickly and moved backwards, looking over his shoulder to watch for obstacles.

When he wasn't at her he spoke again. "Commander?" He couldn't seem to decide what he liked to call her yet.

"Yes, Jester?"

"Why did you let them go together? Clones like us…" Aliette couldn't tell what he was going to say.

Whatever it was it made her heart hurt for him. Soldiers wounded in ways she could not mend the way she normally did.

Aliette hummed softly, letting him think his own thoughts and giving herself time to think of how to phrase what she wanted to say next.

"I think you're all fine men," she said at last. Jester's chin jerked in her direction before it dipped down and away again. "One traitor does not mean you are as disloyal as he was. It reflects on his character, not yours," Aliette thought that was it. What she wanted to say.

She couldn't hear the material squeak of his gloves but she did see his hands tightened their hold. His voice was too soft, yet his lips moved.

Aliette smiled.

* * *

The room was crowded with the light of holograms and moving Bridge Hands. Where tactical illusions usually occupied the main raised platform now stood the congregation of great Jedi Masters, amongst which was her own, listening patiently to the report with her fellows.

Aliette had been allowed to stand at his right flank, just within projections range, while Cody occupied the left, out of sight. To her own right, also invisible to the masters, was Gus.

It was a place of honor, beside a Council Member and her Master. Again pride welled in her chest before she let it wash away. She could revel in it later on, before she let it go to the Force and stopped feeling it. Pride was not supposed to be something she indulged in, so she avoided it as much as she could.

Besides that there wasn't a good enough reason for it right now. There was a weapon that no one knew the whereabouts or the specifications of that was hurting the Clone Troopers. That was a risk to her men.

"This mystery weapon has struck in over a dozen systems, and disappeared without a trace," the third member of their party said gravely. Master Windu spoke true too, it had them all worried. No one was safe as long as the weapon remained out where they could not find it.

Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, the most influential of their party, remained ever serene, however disheartened the pinch of his brows was. Aliette wished they were meeting in person, so she might have a better reading of his Center. He was difficult to understand sometimes, like the way his eyes lit visibly when Master Skywalker joined the images on her screen, most likely at the same time he showed up on his, with young Ahsoka at his side. Aliette was impressed that one so young was being allowed in a discussion so important.

"Master Skywalker," there was warmth in the Chancellor's voice, "Have you had any luck in finding the location of General Grievous' secret weapon?"

Grievous. It was a name that sent a sliver of fear darting past her heart, like a comet invading an atmosphere.

Her Master looked back at her curiously and she flushed a few shades, ashamed of the fear. It was not something a Jedi should have. They were not supposed to fear.

Yet, there had been a time when Fear had kept her heart beating.

"Master Plo Koon was in the Abregado System when our communications cut out," he reported. A joint hologram of the systems crimson son appeared in front of them, floating start against the cold blue of the bipedal beings surrounding it. "While we have had no further contact with Plo Koon, the absence of distress beacons indicates that his fleet was… that his fleet was destroyed, like all the others. We were about to mount a rescue mission."

The Chancellor spoke, gesturing mildly as he did so. "Hasn't Clone Intellegence reported that this weapon never leaves any survivors?"

Aliette's heart fell. She knew Plo Koon. She was close with his niece, Sha, and Ahsoka. Little 'Soka's face was twisting into something that Aliette knew all to well to mean stubbornness was ahead.

Master Plo Koon was the one who had brought Ahsoka to her home, had showed her the ways of the Force when all others had looked the prodigy over. She loved him, though Aliette doubted she even knew what love was.

Her master's eyes were down cast. He was thinking Grim Thoughts.

"Based on the timing, the Seperatists don't want any witness's," he observed. Aliette held her tongue. While that was true, surely they were going to go and find their missing Master.

Surely they would at least look.

"Tragic are these losses. But prevent more, we must," Master Yoda intoned.

Aliette's throat closed.

They wouldn't.

Master Windu went on as if there weren't a potentially dead Jedi floating in the darkness of space.

"All our Clone Units will need to be reassigned to guard our supply convoys," which was a truly foolish move in Aliette's opinion, "including yours Skywalker. I'm afraid we can't risk anymore ships with a rescue mission."

Just as she knew she would, Ahsoka lept forwards in defense of her old friend.

"Wait! Just because there haven't been any survivors before, doesn't mean there won't be any this time!" she tried, looking from one man to the other. Aliette's lips thinned into a line. The young Togruta was right. There was always Hope. There had to be. Or without it, there was nothing at all.

The council members disagreed. With just a few exchanged glances.

Palpatine's voice held no bitterness or scolding. Mere observation. "Boldly spoken for one so young. " Still, it set Ahsoka back a step.

"She _is_ learning from Anakin," Master Kenobi pointed out. He was amused, the Padawan realized.

"Excuse my Padawan," Master Skywalker requested. His voice was tighter. "We will deploy, as you have instructed Master."

There was barely a hearts beat before the Holo was gone and the map of the star system they were in had replaced it.

"So, Young One, what did you think?" Master Kenobi asked her, turning from the console. She was very well aware of the Judgement she would receive no matter what she answered.

"The Council knows better than I the makings of War," she said simply, picking her words with care. She had been told before she would make a good politician, and talk circles around her enemies. Master Kenobi was known as The Diplomat, so it was no surprise that he caught on to her attempt.

"That isn't a real answer," he scolded.

The girl lowered her chin. "My apologies, Master."

"Come," he ordered, gesturing her to follow at his heels as he began to stroll away, towards the Commanding Offices. Hers had been placed, kindly, closer to the Med Bay.

Without any further hesitation she fell in behind him, and the Clones in with her. As her equal in Rank and superior in experience Cody was a pace ahead. As her subordinate and an unseated officer, Gus was three behind.

They ducked into her Masters office, hardly decorated save for a Brew Burner set in by his desk. There were already four chairs, three before the desk and one behind. Each of them positioned themselves accordingly.

"While I appreciate your not arguing with the decisions we made, I would like a truthful response as to what you thought," he told her. For the first few weeks she had been with him he hadn't seemed to realize that unless it was medically important she would not speak out on much of anything, unless it was absolutely necessary. Now, it seemed he was trying to remedy that mistake.

She could not blame him. He would be used to Brazenness of Skywalker, not the Passive Self that belonged to Ansa.

For an instant she considered refusing. It wasn't her place to question what the Council decided. And yet…

"I think it was bad idea, Master. To give up on Master Plo and to redirect so many to protecting supplies," she said at last.

"Why do you doubt Master Windu?" he quizzed, probing further.

Aliette didn't understand why it mattered. She was still going to listen to what she was told.

"With a larger amount of guards, so too will the size of the target increase. It makes it more noticeable, easier to find and in the numbers things will get looked over," she explained slowly. This, at least, she knew to be fact.

Master Kenobi appeared interested, so much so that he pulled out a small Holo Board and set up a group of flags. Black and White. The White held the symbol for the republic upon it.

Aliette understood what he wanted, and set to work for it.

"If the large flags are the supply ships, and the small flags are regular ships, then while the smaller ships can act as buffers in case of attack," she demonstrated, pushing a black piece into the veritable wall that surrounded the large white one, "It would be too easy for something small to be lost within their masts." A little flag, a fraction of the size of the others, disappeared among the white.

"It's only a small one, Sir," Gus said from behind her. Aliette's head bowed instead of snapping up the way Cody's did. He was right. She was being foolish. She didn't know what she was saying, they were more well trained in War Making.

"Small things can be dangerous," her Master said softly. Then her head really did the same as Cody's. Her Master was agreeing with her? On something like this?

"It's not a bad observation," he told her, "In fact, it's a very good one."

He started moving towards the door again, and the other three quickly followed after. "Come," he said again, "Let's go check on Anakin's progress. Then, I will speak with Master Windu."

Aliette was stunned.

She made good observations.

* * *

When he said he would speak with Mace he had actually been intending for his Padawan to do it. It was her thoughts, after all, and she needed some experience talking to those of a higher rank than she was. Unlike Anakin or his Grand Padawan, Aliette showed little inclination to outbursts.

After the fiasco that Anakin was about to unleash he thought otherwise. They would think he encouraged rebellious young ones to act however they wanted instead of trying his best to mold them into the best Jedi they could be, and his newest was neither as confident nor outspoken as his last.

So, after Anakin admitted that they were fetching Plo Koon, Obi Wan got to work. He patched through to the council. He always hated explaining these things to them.

It was, naturally, Mace who answered the call. It couldn't have been someone easier than that.

Kenobi didn't give any outward sign of his wishes for another person to converse with. It wouldn't have done any good.

"Kenobi," Mace greeted. He was never very cordial. "Your former Padawan appears to be missing. _Again_."

Obi Wan sighed to himself. "Yes, I had heard about that. He went after Master Plo Koon and his troops." How word even got to the council so quickly he hadn't the slightest idea, even being a part of it now. He had about given up on trying to figure it out.

"These habits of his were dangerous enough when we weren't at war," Mace stated pointedly.

Obi Wan frowned. Did he honestly think he wasn't aware of that? He had been dealing with Anakin's shenanigans since the boy was still a youngling.

Obi Wan played than his frown was in agreement and not offense, stroking his beard in apparent thought.

"Yes, they are. I'll have a talk with him once he gets back, but for now there was another reason I called you. Something has…occurred, to me," he said slowly. He didn't want to take credit for his Padawan's ideas, but Mace rarely took young ones seriously. As old as Aliette was, she was still a Learner, and he would trust a Master more than that.

"Oh?" it was encouragement enough.

"If we surround our transports completely we only offer a larger target to the weapon the separatists have prepared. It could be more beneficial to split them up into smaller, more easy to maneuver ships," he chose his words with careful fluidity. The Negotiator, indeed.

Mace narrowed his eyes at the younger Jedi. Obi Wan usually followed the lead of other council members in things like this, giving way to their experience and pull.

"And this was your idea?" he pressed.

Obi Wan relented easily enough. "My Padawan had the idea, I thought it held merit."

"While I do see her point, we need more fire power, not more running away," he declared firmly.

Obi Wan had figured he would say something to that effect, but it had been worth a try. It made sense to him, that larger numbers and smaller ships would make more effective transportation. He had to wonder why his Padawan was so sure of herself in this matter of all things.

"Very well. I shall contact Anakin again and see if he's had any luck finding the others."

When he wasn't ordered otherwise Obi Wan cut the connection.

Cody stepped up from where he'd been waiting in the wings. His helmet was tucked in the crook of his elbow, showing off the triple scars above his temple.

"What did you think of Aliette's idea?" Obi Wan questioned.

Cody was a smart soldier, he had been trained well and he knew what to do. He could recognize strategies that could work and those that didn't have a chance. In some ways he was better at it than the Jedi himself.

"I thought the Commander had a point," Cody admitted. "It's easier to track and take down one big target than it is a bunch of smaller ones that can slip through the cracks. It's happened to us before, and we used it a few times on Christophsis. I can't say how well it would work against this weapon, since we don't know what it is."

Obi Wan inclined his head. He had thought along those lines as well.

"I suppose we shall have to see what happens next, to determine whether or not my Padawan was correct. "

* * *

The entire situation had Aliette so stressed she thought her head might explode from it all.

How she missed the days when all she needed to worry about was which Youngling had scalded themselves in practice or how low they were running on antibiotics. How far gone had they become in such a short time since she watched 112 Jedi leave to the jaws of death?

How long?

The girl sighed softly to herself and pulled the mug of tea closer to herself. The mess was empty by that time, everyone either sleeping or on their walk abouts. She had tucked herself into a corner, a table hidden predominantly by a support beam. It was small and secluded, perfect for her to wallow in her own thoughts until she had calmed enough to go and rest.

The smallest spark of irritation flickered through her when the door slid open. It fell apart as soon as she felt who it was that had come thought.

Chopper.

He had turned in over an hour before, her entire squad freed from duty for the 'evening'. So what was he doing in the mess?

She didn't have to wait long to find out. He turned the corner that hid her a few minutes after coming in, a steaming cup of what smelled like Caf held in one hand. The other gripped his helmet.

When he saw her sitting there he stopped short. She felt his surprise before it turned into bitter weariness and something akin to guilt. His face turned one way, obscuring the spider-web scar from her view.

She still needed to find out what that had come from.

The Pantoran gestured to the seats around, five sealed to the floor around the table on hard magnets.

"Will you join me?"

She didn't know if he took it to be an order or if he truly wanted company. Either way he took a seat where he could see out of the windows of the ship, into the passing stars of galaxy. Aliette had been staring at the same thing for over half an hour.

The silence they sat in was not comfortable, something the girl mourned. Chopper didn't seem to like her very much. Anyone, really, so that was some comfort. Every now and again the quiet was interrupted by one of them taking a drink.

In the end, it was Chopper who broke the tensions.

"How, ah, how are you settling in, Commander?" he asked. His questioned was faltering.

She took it up anyways.

"I'm doing alright, thank you. There is still much for me to learn, but I believe that that will come with time."

He head tilted to hers, showing he was listening to what she said.

"It's weird to think you Jedi weren't raised for this," he said. A moment after his shoulders tensed. Weariness increased.

Aliette ignored it and tried to abate his fears.

"No, we were. In some ways. There are classes that we take at the Temple, ones that teach us the basics, and sometimes more advanced, combat styles and strategies. Mostly that is left for the Masters to teach Padawans. The rest is merely the skeletal work for what may or may not come later in life," she explained. When he didn't cut her off, and when his eyes finally drifted to her, she took it for curiosity and continued.

"I know the beginnings of how to plan an attack, and now I know how to execute it. But really, I was taught how to heal and act as a doctor, on the field or off, so my knowledge is mixed around some. I'm trying to learn and unlearn a lot at once."

Her teeth tapped together again. She hadn't meant to go blathering on so long.

"How are you doing?" she asked, "Now that you're cleared?"

His jaw worked noticeably before it dropped open for a single, ''fine."

Aliette tried not to be too disappointed. Chopper didn't strike her as much of a talkative person. There was a sort of sigh from him.

"Sorry Commander. Things are going alright. Tense, is all," he said.

She wondered, "Is that why you're here?"

His head shook. "I couldn't get to sleep. Too much excitement today, I guess."

Aliette understood. A hum rose from the back of her mouth as it curved into a sympathetic smile. "I know what you mean. I've been trying to sleep for sometime now."

Chopper nodded then before he looked back at the stars.

His shoulders were less tense now. Their quiet beats were more familiar.

Aliette had a feeling this would be a regular occurance.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Kaliida**

 **This one's a little shorter than most.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Tatsuki Vermilion: Settling is something of a strong word. She's learning, at least. Ventress' light sabers weren't made by her, they were made by Komari Vosa, Dooku's old Padawan. When he found Ventress he gave her Komari's light sabers. I think I put a flashback in where Aliette is training with Komari, which is sort of how she knows them.**

 **BlueMoonAce: I have!**

 **Regin: Thank you, here you go!**

* * *

As soon as she discovered the next target for the superweapon Aliette knew she would not be sleeping soon.

A medical facility, filled with the injured and dying. Those that could not fight back. Those that she had made vows to protect to mend. They were not her charges but they might as well have been, for the unexpected fury that washed over her when she heard the news. Deka had actually stepped back from her when it slipped from her grip and into the air, the poor man.

Now she stared at the holographic map of the system around Naboo, her hands clasped firmly before her. Chopper was with her that day, standing at Ease in one corner of the room while her mind spun unhappily. Hyperspace shot by around them, stars and planets blurred with speeds impossible by mortal means. They were on their way to the Kaliida Shoals Medical Center, desperately trying to reach it in time to save the 60,000 wounded troopers on it. The Naboo were already on their way to try and help, being the closest people who could. 'Soka and her Master, as well as Plo Koon, were taking a 'short cut' to try and beat the monstrous ship to their hurt troopers.

Aliette prayed they made it there in time.

"Commander, glaring at the stars won't make us reach them faster," Chopper said from behind. It was his own dry attempts at humor. She managed a smile for the trooper.

"I suppose not. Wishful thinking, perhaps, will make us faster?" One of the deck officers snorted at her joke, lightening her own spirits marginally. At she could get some people to laugh at more than just her mistakes.

"Even when we get there, there's little I will be able to do. My Master will pass out the orders, and I am neither pilot nor gunman. I won't be able to aid any at all with the offense. Defense it mostly for the shields. I suppose my role this time will be waiting until the injured in come." Behind her, Chopper cleared his throat.

"You could always go to them, Commander." Curious, she turned to look at the scarred trooper, only a moment lest he draw in as he had a tendency to do when too much attention was put on him. Draw In or Lash Out. It was difficult sometimes to know which he might be leaning more toward. She was still learning to read him. Chopper must have taken her glance as a sign to continue, for he did.

"You could take a transport to the Med Base and help there. Evac if they get shut down, or fixing those that need it." Aliette jerked up straight in her surprise. She could. It was well within her power to take a ship to assist the satellite, and there was no reason for her to be denied if she put the request to her master. The Pantoran turned to her subordinate and smiled widely.

"Thank you, Chopper. I believe we've found our first mission as a squad." He started when she threw in the word 'we' before his chin lifted and his shoulders tightened into attention. Aliette turned to the communicator on her wrist, now attached to arm guards, and put out the call.

"Master? Where are you?" she asked. The thrill of being a Padawan still hadn't worn off and sent a thrill of accomplishment through her chest.

"I'm in the Conference room, Aliette. Will you be joining me?" he questioned over the Comms. Aliette confirmed that she would be there soon before she and Chopper set off through the ship, he shadowing her two paces behind and to the left. It was a place of honor, she had been told before, to be on the Right.

It meant you had been chosen to be the Right Hand, the most trusted person, to your superior. Aliette had yet to take that place with her own Master, and her personal men she had yet to assign the place to. She did not know then well enough to decide where they would belong with her. They did not put themselves there.

Perhaps this day things would change for the better.

Aliette would have completely overshot the Conference room if Chopper hadn't slowed and politely cleared his throat from behind. Her ears turning light violet the girl nodded in thanks to Chopper and stepped into the room, trying to ignore the smidgen of humiliation that crept up her spine. It was a simple mistake. She didn't need to be as upset about it as she was.

Master Kenobi looked over at her with a kind curve of his mouth when she walking in, Chopper trailing behind. Cody was with him, as was Captain Rex. She bowed to them all, her Padawan braid bouncing against her shoulder. Illegal pride touched her heart at it.

"Master, have I missed much?" She hoped it wasn't an important meeting. If it was, and she had been left out…

Then it would have been her Masters choice. One that would hurt something horrible. A wave of reassurance was pushed towards her through the newly formed Bond. She sent a smile back to the one it came from, and a received a nod in return.

"We were only discussing the new Y-Wings, nothing to worry about," he assured, gesturing to his clone companions. A sliver of envy, unwelcome and annoying, flittering through her heart before she could squash it. He spoke with his men more than his student.

"The fighters?" she clarified, wanting to make sure she hadn't misinterpreted his words. Her Master nodded confirmation and pulled up the schematics on a holo-feed. The diagram floated, turning slowly to be seen from all sides by all present. She felt Chopper's admiration for the designs, though she herself was only a mediocre pilot she could recognize good craftsman ship.

"Yes. As you know Anakin has taken a small strike team of them to attack Grievous before we arrive to back them up. We were just talking about ways we could use them in the future, if this venture is successful," Obi Wan explained. Aliette made a sound of understanding.

"They could be very useful in the future," she agreed carefully, looking for an opening to make her request. Obi Wan must have seen her predicament for he took mercy on her struggles.

"What did you need, Aliette?"

"Oh!" she stood straighter, "I had thought that, when we reach the base, I might take a small number of troops, my squad predominantly, to the Medical base to assist in either treatment or evacuation, as needed. I believe I might be of more use there than here." Obi Wan regarded her with such care she had to struggle not to shift from foot to foot. Her hands didn't shake.

"If you were to do that, how would I teach you to lead in a firefight like the one we're about to go into?" he reasoned. Aliette took it as refusal and back down quickly.

"I'm sorry Master. It was only a small thought. I will remain at your side, of course." As a Padawan should. She had been foolish to believe this was the right course of action. He was to be teaching her and if he would do that she couldn't be running around just because there was someone in pain-

"It was a good idea," he cut in smoothly, snapping her thoughts from the path they had been spiraling into. "The only problem is the timing. Once things have calmed, if you still wish to see to the Medical base, by all means, take your men. It may prove an educational field trip." While she disliked the phrasing the Pantoran lowered herself into a respectful bow.

"Yes Master."

A Field Trip. How Quaint.

* * *

Chopper walked behind his small Commander, trying to stay in the right position. Her legs were so much shorter than his she would be all too easy to outpace if he didn't pay attention. With the Generals they were all almost of the same height, but not his Commander. She was a good head shorter than them all, despite her being at least as old as them physically. He didn't know much about Pantorans, and so marked it up to their basic anatomy. Perhaps they were all tiny and she was a giant. He didn't know.

He didn't question it either. He wasn't Gus, who poked and prodded at their Commander for every conceivable fault he could find. Nor was he Jester, who had a strange interest in how the woman reacted to things. He wasn't as outspoken as Punch or as closed off as Sketch. After the ordeal with the Court Martial and Slicks betrayal…

Chopper didn't know who he was. He did know that if he kept not paying attention he was going to trip over the Commander the next time she stopped. He drew up just short of her left shoulder, very near striking it with his chest plate. She didn't seem to notice, her eyes were locked on the window outside the bay they were passing, one of the viewing ports allowed on the upper levels. They had left hyperspace, and through the clear wall he could see a massive ship, partially lit on fire, with the new Y Wings shooting away from it. Chopper let out a soft whistle from beneath his helmet.

"A Behemoth falls to the calls of birds," his Commander murmured. Chopper could have sighed. Jedi had a horrible habit of speaking nonsense. He'd hoped this one had a bit more sense, but it appeared otherwise.

"It's not down yet, Commander. Those Clankers might still get away," he reminded her. Gold eyes slid back to him and for a second he worried he'd spoken out of turn before remembering who he was talking to. The Commander was about as lenient as anyone got.

"I know. But we're here now, so maybe we can stop this monstrosity before it has the chance to run." There was something bright flickering in her eyes. Before his downcast eyes Chopper realized what it was. I couldn't quite figure out what you wanted to say here, so I made a guess.

Hope.

"My Master will want us at the bridge," she assumed, and turned them back as they went. Chopped went after her dutifully, his steps light as could be in the armor he was weighted down with. He had always been quick footed, more so than any of his squad mates. It made him quiet and fast.

Not fast enough to avoid a crashing ship on Geonosis.

His jaw grew tight at the thought and he stood straighter, his muscles growing tighter. A soft wave pushed against his chest, flowing potential calm at him. He accepted it without question, breathing in the gift from his Commander.

She didn't look at him, didn't ask him. He was grateful. He was supposed to be made of tougher stuff, designed to withstand any kind of pressure, any sort of trauma. Like the rest of his brothers.

But something had gone wrong on Geonosis. Something had been knocked loose. Some part his brain that made him resilient. He'd lost the restraints they had forcibly set inside his skull.

More calm was pushed to him and something nudged his hand. His mind. A phantom hand that felt cool as the snow he'd been trained so briefly in. He took a breath and stood straighter. Locked his mind up.

He didn't want the Jedi inside.

There was the smallest twitch of his Commanders fingers and the ghostly pressure eased. No longer touching. Chopper's jaw tightened and he finally banished the thoughts from his mind to focus on the bridge they had come upon. Commander Ansa was at General Kenobi's side already, her eyes forwards. With one ear open for any orders he watched the battle unfold, his palms itching to take up arms and join it.

It wasn't going to happen, of course. They had their orders, and besides that he was trained for planetary combat, not arial. He knew the basics but he was not brought up to fight in the stars. His place was on ground, in hard terrain and tough surfaces. He was lucky, he supposed, that his Commander seemed to have little interest in star fighting. He would be in trouble if he was trying to learn to be a fighter pilot in the middle of a war. It would be suicide.

But if the Commander ordered it…

"Go ahead," the General said as soon as the explosions were fading. Skywalker's squad had done it and just like that he was rushing after his Commander, lock step behind her light, silent footsteps. She moved fast. Jedi quick. Jedi were so fast, it was ridiculous that they were expected to keep up with them, just clones, all alike.

Never so fast. Gus, Sketch, Punch and Jester fell in behind him, none of them moving to the Commanders right. None of them were privileged enough for that. Maybe one day but right then… they stayed as they were supposed to be, in order, where she could make her orders and her gestures clear were they needed.

The pilot they loaded in was Trip, a quick witted, somewhat clumsy brother who advised them to 'strap in' before he took off into space.

* * *

As soon as they stepped foot on the medical base her shoulders dropped and the tension drained from her body entirely. She was utterly relaxed as soon as she was snapping her heels on the metal floor. Medicine she knew. The Hurt and the Fear that rolled through the air and the Force were as familiar as the shade of her hair, as known to her heart as the beats it made every second.

Her men were Tense as they walked behind her, marching. Marching. Their steps were, if nothing else, constant. If she weren't already comfortable surrounded by the Injured and the Dying, or she might have taken it as a comfort. If anyone needed comfort here, it was going to be the people on the beds and in the tanks that they hadn't been able to move in time.

The rest were already on their way to Naboo, a planet that Aliette had heard had some of the best medical centers in the system. She only wished she could visit it before they were off again. The time she was allowed to spend here was going to be limited, she knew. Her Master would want to go after the Malevolence, so she was going to had to move quickly if she wanted to be useful.

Aliette moved through the chaos of the docking bay, the Force telling her were to go. To a Kaminoan who was standing in a door way with Ahsoka, Master Skywalker, and Master Plo Koon. The Kaminoan was, without a doubt, the one in charge, so it was her that the girl aimed her attention at. The long necked creature finished speaking with the others before she reached her, and aimed her eyes at the much smaller Pantoran. Aliette dipped a polite bow to the group in whole.

"I've come to help heal the wounded," she reported. Master Skywalker was shaking his head. Her heart started to sink.

"We need to go after Grievous immediately," he told her. Aliette swallowed thickly. No, no. This was the one place in this war where she knew what she was doing. The one place where she was totally confidant in her abilities and her knowledge. They couldn't mean for her to go with them, they couldn't.

"Master, I'm a healer, not a fighter pilot. My skills would be of more use here." It was the first time she had ever question the order she'd been given since being assigned Master Kenobi. She could feel a jolt of shock run through her subordinates. They knew it too. Master Skywalker caught her eyes. She could have sworn there was some sympathy in her eyes, but it was gone right away.

"We need all hands on deck," he told her firmly. "We'll take your transport back to Master Kenobi's cruiser and regroup." Her tongue threatened treason. Her wide eyes betrayed her disbelief. All she had wanted was to know that she could be useful and now… Not uncertainty returned. It had haunted her since she first arrived on Cristophsis.

She bowed, low and resigned. She couldn't object. Couldn't fight. Orders were not something she could affort to question. Not when she was finally a Padawan.

"Yes, Master. I understand."

She just didn't like it


	9. Chapter 9

**Alright so there are going to be a few timeline discrepancies. When I was first figuring out Aliette's background I tried to find exact dates for Komari's Fall and Dooku's leaving the order, but I couldn't. I just went on the Wiki to double check that my calculations weren't too off and somehow, since I first started this story, a more exact timeline was posted. I don't know why it's only just now there but there it is.**

 **So I'm going to be moving up the year of the mission to Baltizaar so it happens in 32 BBY instead of 33. It's not a huge change but I felt like I should give some heads up.**

 **I should also say that I decided to throw a timeskip out here. I didn't think anything important would happen during the whole Padme debacle even if Aliette was a part so I skipped it. Viola.**

 **I've got a few pictures of Aliette on my deviantart, also lore55.**

 **Reviews;**

 **ScarletFishcake: Thank you so much, I should have the next chapter done a lot sooner than this one. I'm really glad that you found it! I was looking for a story like this one for a week before I gave up and wrote my own. There have only been two Pantoran Jedi that I can think of, Toro Irana, and Tatsu. Toro was a Padawan that served during the Clone Wars, and was actual in a fight with Maul and Savage. Tatsu was a member of the New Jedi Order. For some reason a lot of fanfics don't address that Jedi Healers even exist, it's crazy! So I decided to fix that.**

 **artistgirl16: She won't, she won't. Not for a while, at least.**

 **SupremeGeneralJoker: It's not quite like she imagined, sadly.**

 **Siren: Thank you! It drives me nuts that people ignore all the things that the Force and Jedi can do outside of beating people up with their magic glow sticks.**

 **Guest from January 16th: I like how you go for the throat first thing, god damn.**

 **JaDe In NighT: They'll do their best.**

 **amerdism: Thanks! I don't have much of a schedule for any chapters, it's more like I write it when I feel like it a throw it out when I'm done. Usually as a desperate attempt to get praise, whoops! I've been vaguely describing her through out the story, mostly in the first chapter, but just for reference she's a Pantoran, and there for blue. Her hair is a light purple, she has no yellow markings. She's very short, significantly shorter than the clones. Her clothes are a sort of grey shirt with three quart bell sleeves and a shirt of the same shade. All in all she looks very plain for the time being. I'll add more later on, actually in the story, It just don't like vomiting up a whole long description at once.**

 **As for her personality that's just how I'm writing her. Her development will come as it does. You've actually asked about her being held back at a good time, a good bit comes out in this chapter.**

 **Guest from February 9th: Will do!**

 **Lilly Talons: I'm really glad you enjoyed this! I do try pretty hard to make it nice and original. The squad is going to have quite the change with this Commander.**

 **Owlfur: That's really flattering to hear, thank you so much for saying that! If I may ask, who's the other favorite vying for your attention? This chapter should prove to be even more enlightening.**

* * *

The Center of a pirate was not unlike Aliette's had once been.

Their Centers were held, almost exclusively, for their own self-interest. There was a distinct lack of Loyalty or Care, in its place was Malcontent, Avarice, and Covetousness. They were less Parsimonious than she had once been, if the party she was in attendance of was any indication. Voracious and Licentious were the first words that came to mind. Amongst them were also Drunk, Exuberant, and Devious.

Mostly Drunk.

Hondo, Leader of them all, had a proclivity of taking people hostage, it seemed to her.

That was why they had made their way to the outpost in the first place, to capture the ever elusive Count Dooku. Capture was, perhaps, the wrong word. Obtain seemed more appropriate, seeing as he had already been caught, by the very pirates that they were now celebrating with.

Her Master and Skywalker were trading drinks with their hosts, putting more down than they should. Aliette herself was content with something weaker than theirs. More fruit, less fermentation.

The Padawan twirled the drink around, watching the soft pink twist with its lighter shades. It was pretty, and horrible for her liver. It tasted fine though, much better than some things she had had. Alcohol in general was not wide spread at the Temple, and Aliette rarely left it, never mind sought out getting drunk. She had had enough of that on Pantora.

Her people lived in constant permafrost. Ethanol was in abundance for them, she had been drinking it for as long as she could remember on that planet. It was easier to keep than water, which was normally frozen over entirely.

Her Master and Skywalker were having a harder time, she realized on her third fruity drink.

They had accepted the strong stuff. Something thin and green, they traded it with those around them like conmen with a stone. Aliette wanted to ask if they were sure they should drink that much, but Obi-Wan was her Master, it wasn't her place to question him.

Master Skywalker, on the other hand…

It was hard for her to think of him that way. She could still remember when he'd arrived at the temple, older than anyone else would have been allowed to come to them. She had pushing the boundaries when she was brought about at six, Master Skywalker's age was completely unheard of.

He wasn't even a full year older than Aliette, and he had only been training for a fraction of her time.

It irked the girl that he had been chosen as a Padawan right off the bat, barely making it through the basics. Now she was under his Master and he himself was a Knight.

She should have been grateful to be a Padawan at all. She had given up on the prospect entirely, then the Council had summoned her and once again, rules were bent. This time for her.

She couldn't understand why, nor could she comprehend why she was being brought alone on this mission. It was possible, she supposed, that her Master hadn't been told everything, or that the Council was unaware she was on this trip with them.

The latter was far less likely.

Both of them were, all things considered. Obi Wan Kenobi was fifteen years her senior, he had been at the temple the day she had been brought in. Of course, that was well over a decade passed, and it wasn't a very big deal.

"You want something stronger there, girly?" Quizzed the bar tender, leaning closer to the blue girl. She looked from her drink to him, noting the slight confusion in the lines of his face. Was he unused to people who didn't go out of their way to intoxicate themselves? She had been taking mild drinks all night, after all.

Her braid bounced against her collar bone when she shook her head.

"No, thank you Sir," she denied, drawing her legs up closer to her, up onto the stool. She was small, making it all the easier.

"Sir?" the keeper laughed at her and shook his head. "Varg. Varg Droy," he introduced.

Aliette dipper herself to him politely, careful not to topple over her drink.

"Aliette Ansa. Charmed," she wasn't trying to be witty or flirtatious but apparently she came off as such, for Varg laughed again. Perhaps he was merely good humored. It may well have been a mix of both. Another pirate dropped into the seat beside her, separating Aliette from her Master.

They looked at each other over his shoulder. Aliette sent a wave of Ease towards him. She didn't feel threatened by the pair, neither of them seemed to mean her harm and if worse came to worse she could Defend, and her Master wouldn't let anything happen.

Or at least she hoped so.

"You can't hog the only pretty girl in the whole place, Varg," the new comer scolded. Aliette's brows pulled together in bewilderment.

"You have a very pretty wait staff," she objected. Or so she thought. She enjoyed the look of their skeletal features and the different alterations between the shades of their skin. The Healer was curious if it was a genetic marking pattern or a chosen one, given that so few bore it. The second in command of the pirates, Gwarm, sported much warmer colors than many of his fellows.

"Yeah, real pretty," Varg agreed, eying one of the females purposefully. The new Weequay glowered at him. Defense shifted in his Center.

"Eyes of the sister," he snapped at his fellow.

Varg held up his hands. "Take it easy Khorta," he whined, "I'm not doing anything to her."

"You better not," 'Khorta' warned, "She ate her last husband."

Aliette turned to follow the woman with her eyes as she slipped through the crowds, a tray balanced perfectly on one hand. The other hung low by her hips, next to a blaster in an unlocked holster.

"Keic did not," Varg objected, "She killed him but I doubt she ate him. She's vegan."

A vegan pirate. Who would have thought? Aliette turned back to the conversation, finishing off her glass and setting it down. Without asking, Varg refilled it.

"She doesn't eat people," Varg reiterated. He leaned across the counter to grin at Aliette. "Do you?"

It took a minute for the meaning to click. When it did the young woman looked up at him, her head cocked ever so slightly.

The words fell out without a thought, "I'm more interested in if you do."

She stunned the both of them for a good half minute before Khorta slapped her hard on the back, roaring with buzzed up laughter. Aliette moved with it to lessen the impact, spilling some of her cocktail of the edge of the glass.

"I like this Jedi!" he declared aloud. The Pantoran had surprised herself with that one. She was a medic, any flirting she did was with death, not the living. She wasn't entirely sure what she was doing now. Apparently it was good fun though, for Varg broke out of his stupor with a silly smile.

"I had no idea Jedi could be so dirty minded," he confessed. His hands moved without him needing to look, fixing something strong for Khorta. It was dark purple, and bubbling slightly. Aliette was very interested in how that had happened.

"I'm not a Jedi yet," she smiled in what she hoped was a good mockup of the one she had seen on the streets. She was having fun with these pirates, no matter that she didn't have as much confidence as she acted then. She couldn't find any Malice in their intentions, and so felt little Fear. They may have been thieves, but there was a time where she was too.

"Yeah? That's what that fancy braid is for, ain't it?" Khorta asked, taking the liberty of pushing her hair away from her face and ear, showing off the Padawan symbol she bore to himself and the bar keep.

Aliette lifted her chin, a sliver of Pride curving her mouth.

"It is. Master Kenobi is training me in the ways of the Jedi," she informed them, a bit more like her usual self. The sudden bout of Flirt and Confidence seemed to be edging away. Perhaps she wasn't as immune to alcohol as she had first thought. It had been years since she'd had so much.

"Sounds like a lot of work," it was hard to tell if Varg was curious or if he pitied her for it. "You're not allowed to have sex right?"

She had no idea why, but that was one of the most common questions people asked about Jedi, aside from a million queries about the Force. Aliette did not often venture out into the world beyond the Temple, but when she did it was interesting to see how people reacted to the Jedi at a whole. Some felt protected by them. Others thought of them as kidnappers and hypocrites.

"We are forbidden attachment and passion," she said simply. It was the best answer she could come up with. There was no order for them to be celibate, besides heavy implication. It was one of the most bent rules in their entire Order. Aliette didn't know a member of Age that hadn't tried at least once, herself included.

"That's not a no," Khorta pointed out.

Aliette shook her head. "No, it's not. It's not a yes either."

They seemed to understand her denial, for the both of them shrugged. Casual banter went on and Aliette found herself fond of the pair of pirates. They seemed nice enough, and neither of them was pushing her for anything, besides obvious hints.

She was halfway through a light laugh of her own when the edge of her vision started fading.

By the time that laugh ended, it was gone entirely.

* * *

Of all the people she could have woken up in a room with, Aliette wished for any other than the one sitting serenely in the corner. Kriff, she would have much rather found herself in bed with Varg or Khorta.

Her head was pounding, the world swam in front of her vision. Aliette took a breath, drawing in the Force and letting it out, the throbbing going along with it. If she didn't know his Signature so well it would have been another minute before she recognized Dooku.

"Aliette," his voice was low and smooth. Even imprisoned he looked perfectly regal. When they had come to see him earlier she had stayed outside the door, uncomfortable so near the Sith Lord.

'Master Dooku' was no longer the appropriate title for him.

"Count," was sufficient, she figured. The young woman pushed herself up, slowly. She wasn't hurting, but she did feel sick. Her hands were bound in front of her, bright blue energy holding them together. That same energy snaked around her middle and trailed off to Skywalker.

It wouldn't be too much disrespect if she decided to simply call him Anakin. But he was a Master, so that wouldn't be appropriate. Anakin Skywalker was a strong man, and more connection to the Force than anyone else. He also had a habit of coming into the Healers Hall at least once a month. Master Che dealt with his recklessness most of the time.

Hot Headed.

He always had been. Even now he was incredibly reckless.

Seeing him now was strange. After her encounter with Ventress it hurt, too. More so than it would have if she had just found her old teacher like this. If she hadn't confronted the assassin it would have merely been betrayal to the order. Betrayal to Komari was something different entirely.

"I see you've finally managed to find a Master," he said the last word as if it were covered in dirt.

Aliette folded her hands in her lap. Her breathing was carefully measured.

 _There is no Emotion. There is only Peace._

"I expected you to have one before now. Those fools on the Council must truly be desperate if they are letting you into a war."

 _There is no Passion. There is Serenity._

"Not to Skywalker, I hope."

Aliette couldn't tell if he was trying to have a conversation or to hurt her. Either one, even both, were entirely possible. The Healer leaned over to touch the hands of both of the Masters that lay before her, still prone on the ground. A pulse of Force through them began to rouse the pair.

"Master Kenobi is my teacher," she answered then, sitting away from the pair. Her hands returned to her lap, gripped tight together.

Anakin groaned quietly for Obi Wan as he began to stir.

Dooku neither smiled no frowned. He was wholly neutral when he said, "Yes. Komari never did return to train you."

Aliette glued her tongue to her teeth before the treacherous thought of ' _neither did you'_ slipped out.

It had been a promise, made right before the Council declared Komari unfit for Knighthood.

" _When I become a Jedi, you'll be my Padawan, right Ansa?" Komari's grin, always sharp and dangerous, was parallel to a sweet smile of the little girl in front of her._

 _Lavender hair bounced around in a short bob as its owner nodded her joy. She would be a Padawan soon, and Komari would turn her into a Knight. They could go on all sorts of adventures together, helping people. Aliette was a good Healer and Komari was a masterful Warrior. They would be the perfect match._

That hadn't happened. Instead, Komari had been banned from taking the trials at all, by bother her Master and the Council itself. She had been devastated. Not a month after she took up that horrible mission that had ended her life.

Aliette had never been asked to serve under another Master.

They were all busy, either with another Padawan or missions during their desperate fight to keep the Separatist Movement from gaining ground. No one wanted to drag along a Healer that barely passed her Lightsaber training. Let alone one that had been picked out of the ice by a violent Padawan and her turn-coat Master.

By the time the rumors the flowing about Komari and Dooku began to fade she was already passed the age in which she could become a Padawan.

Aliette had resigned herself to be a Healer for the rest of her existence.

"What happened?"

Gold eyes flickered over to Skywalker. He was sitting up, slowly. Her Master was trying to shake his head free of the drink.

"I guess that pirate crew is stronger than we thought," he estimated, pushing himself to his knees. Aliette frowned. They had been poisoned and drunk. An unfortunate event for them all, but none of that remained.

The same would be said for her fondness of Varg and Khorta.

"I only took a sip," Anakin tried defend. Aliette's frown deepened. That was a lie. He'd knocked back one drink after the other, all the while chatting with his neighbors.

"Obviously we were poisoned," Kenobi concluded. To that, the girl would agree. When they returned to Coruscant she would ask Master Che about poisons. They hadn't dealt with those very much while she was studying there.

"Why would they risk losing the ransom?" Skywalker demanded. He was angry, very much so. Aliette didn't particularly blame him.

"It's a business tactic," she hazarded quietly. It was enough to draw attention to herself. "Why have one hostage if you can have four? They'll make more money this way."

"A very shrewd observation, _Padawan_ Ansa" Dooku was mocking her. He had to be. The man had no kind words left for her, no help that would be given willingly. Those days were long passed.

"Oh, great," sarcasm was strong in Skywalker, "it's you." He spit the words out. He hadn't been in the Order long enough to have known Dooku before he left. All he had to know about him was that he was cruel, and an enemy.

Aliette wished she could say the same.

The young Pantoran looked between the three humans and closed her eyes.

This was going to be a long day.


	10. Chapter 10

**Reviews;**

 **Owlfur: Thank you very much! I'm definately going to have to check that out, it sounds awesome! I'm hoping that this will be a pretty bombad chapter ;) not as much as the next one, of course, which will have our favorite Gungan General.**

 **QueenNagaina: I couldn't resist throwing that in there.**

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 **Nwood18: I'll do what I can! I'm really trying to make this story my own, which should be pretty easy given that I can count on one hand the number of Star Wars oc Stories I've read. Unfortunately.**

* * *

"Perhaps we should take the other hallway?"

Aliette's protests caused pause in Obi Wan. And the Count, he noted idly. Anakin grumbled about it, but paused when he placed his hand on the young Knight's arm.

"Why do you say that?" Obi Wan asked. His eyes darted to Aliette, who was not looking so much at the door as she was looking past it. Her eyes were far away, her head was cocked. Obi Wan had the very distinct impression she was listening to the Force. It whispered to him through their bond.

Aliette's mouth was open to reply when she was cut off by the _esteemed_ Count.

"This way will be fine," he snapped.

"Are you sure?" Anakin's doubt was well placed, as was Aliette's affronted frown. She didn't get offended easily. Put down and doubtful, but no offended. He'd only seen it before when Anikin pointed out her age. Anakin was good at irritating people.

"Would you rather listen to the _Padawan_?" the word was said with a sneer.

Anakin scowled darkly at him. His jaw set in a stubborn line that was all too familiar to Obi Wan. He'd seen it many times over the past ten years. It never meant good things were in store.

"Yeah, actually, I would!"

A flicker of surprise went through the bond. Part of Obi Wan wondered if it could slip to Anakin through him. He never had had the heart to sever their connection completely. A failing as a Master.

He wasn't the worst Master in existence, of course.

In fact, Obi Wan had distinct memories of Dooku ignoring the advice of his own Padawan, before Qui Gon's demise and his leaving the order. The girl he had taken on after him had been wild, and her thoughts either smoothly deflected or completely ignored, despite the . The beginning of Dooku's Fall were clear, looking back.

Obi Wan would address that when there was more time.

Aliette moved to object again but it was too later. Dooku had opened a door, and shown them a hallways that was not empty or safe as he had assured them, but full of pirates. Their eyes all locked onto the group.

Behind them a door slid open, revealing still more pirates. They were surrounded, and totally unarmed.

Obi Wan didn't think he'd heard his younger Padawan curse yet.

* * *

They were tied even tighter together now. Close enough that if they didn't take care they might accidently touch the Count. Hando was mournful of their attempt, but not enough to free them. The arguments started as soon as he was out of the room, a three way sass off between the three humans.

His Pantoran protégé was another story, her eyes taking in the world around them. Obi Wan stopped arguing with Dooku to turn his attention to her. She had known that they shouldn't go down that path way.

"How did you know that they were there?" he questioned. He had a feeling he knew.

The girl lifted her gold eyes to his blue.

"I could feel them," she explained, "Through the Force."

That had been what he'd thought. His former Padawan, while he could feel the Force just fine, it was not a very refined when it came to sensing. Or anything else, really. It was predominantly brute force with him.

Anakin shifted to his side, his attention leaving their adversary to focus on the Padawan beside him. They were very close in age, Obi Wan noted absently. Which again begged the question, why had she not had a Master yet?

"You don't seem very strong in it," the youngest human stated flatly. He wasn't wrong. Especially compared to him, she had relatively little Force signature. Certainly more than a regular person would. Definitely enough to be a Jedi, but smaller than all three of the humans.

The girl shifted uncomfortably. "I'm a Healer," she said, like that should explain everything. For Anakin, it didn't seem to help at all. For Obi Wan it made marginally more sense. His knowledge of Healing was rudimentary but he knew that it required great precision and a bone deep connection with the Living Force.

Before Anakin could say anything else Obi Wan cut him off. He had a habit of being mouthy and rude, something that would help no one now, no matter how much fun it was to prod the Count.

Dooku levelled him with an annoyed glower, as though he could read his thoughts.

"We could use that for our escape," he observed. Dooku snorted derisively, as if he were coming up with any better ideas.

"Yes, a marvelous idea," he drawled, voice dripping with sarcasm, "If it takes a thief to catch one, perhaps it takes one to escape them as well."

Anakin spoke sharply, as he was prone to. "A thief?" The accusation was not aimed at the Padawan, but the traitor. Obi Wan almost smiled at the defensiveness of his former student. Dooku did not appreciate the step he'd taken and curled his lip distastefully at the youngest man.

Aliette's shoulders rolled, like water over stone. She seemed to be trying to let the words slide off of her. Through their Bond Obi Wan sensed some apprehension, and he was quick to push assurance to her. She smiled at him gratefully.

"You were someone before you were a Jedi too, Master Skywalker. So was 'Soka. It holds little bearing on who I am now," she picked her words with care. The last sentence was aimed directly at the Count. It explained why she knew about attacking a large target, Obi Wan figured. A thief would know all about that.

They would also know about sneaking around in dangerous areas.

It did bring about more questions about his Padawan though. He could imagine a number of Jedi would be merciful to a child who had tried to steal from them, especially one who was strong in the Force. He did wonder who brought her back to the Temple.

Obi Wan decided he would ask later on.

Once they had escaped.

"Well, can you get us out of here?" Anakin asked impatiently. If his arms weren't bound Obi Wan knew he would be crossing them.

The Pantoran slipped into started, wide eyes.

"What?" her voice pitched. "I haven't done anything like this in _fifteen_ _years_ ," she stressed. "Maybe if we were separated, or if it was just me but I don't know the lay out of this place."

"No, but you know where they pirates are," Obi Wan could feel a plan forming inside of his skull. The beginnings of one. They were going to have to work together now, if they were going to escape. None of them were armed, it would take a miracle to get through this unscathed.

The girl nodded slowly, her eyes flickering to the door.

Outside stood a pirate. The bar tender from the night before. What had he called himself?

"Varg," there was a surprising lack of venom in Aliette's voice. That's right. They had been flirting the night before. He would have expected her to take the betrayal more seriously.

"Hey there," he greeted, baring his teeth at the girl in a smile. There was a tray in his hands that he knelt to shove it into a gap bellow the bars to their cell. Upon it was slices of fruits and bits of dried meat.

The quartet looked to the food wearily. Varg didn't look sheepish, or apologetic.

"It's bad business to mishandle hostage's, Mama always said," he justified. Dooku turned up his nose to the offering.

" 'Mishandling' doesn't stop at poisoning," Anakin accused.

Obi Wan picked up with, "Or pointing blaster at."

Varg shrugged, apparently unabashed. "Nope. 'Fraid not," he said simply, before walking away as casual as could be, leaving behind only a single guard. Obi Wan looked to his Padawan, who was frowning at Varg's back. In all he judged her to be taking the situation well. She wasn't screaming or pitching a fit. Nor did she seem to be anywhere near tears. Aside from the harsh line her lips had drawn to it was hard to tell she was upset at all.

A small tug at their Bond and her emotions, a strange array of conflict, flooded into his chest.

They were not close enough yet for him to pick apart each individual strands that made up the rope that ran between them. In fact he only had a gist of hurt and frustration. It was so much more mild than anything Anakin ever produced that he was surprised that he was able to tell that much.

His Padawans were like fire and ice.

 _The desert and the tundra_.

* * *

Aliette leaned against the wall as her Master coxed the pirate towards them, her gold eyes caught on the creature that had imprisoned them. One of them, at least.

Her ears were pricked, her senses cast out into the far away, trying to pick up the Life moving around them. For many it was difficult to discern the different between life forms they were unfamiliar with, for most young ones it was even harder to simple 'turn on' the Sensing, as Ahsoka put it.

She was not young. On top of that, she was a Healer. They lived and breathed the Force, even more so than the majority of Jedi. They had to learn to call it into their bones and cast it out into the blood of other, to touch each individual midiclorian in the life form in their hands.

It was curious to think that her Force Senses were stronger than the three Masters around her.

In fact it was, in a part of her heart that made her stomach turn in guilt, gratifying.

"Have a nice night," she murmured after the pirate as he left, off to get drunk while the four of them walked out of their newly opened cell.

"Not bad," Anakin allowed, moving to make room for Aliette in their little chain gang. She felt like she was in the middle of holonet vid. Kidnapped by pirates, tied with an enemy.

It was almost cliché.

"Yes," Dooku's answering drawl was pulled out low, until she couldn't be sure if it was mocking or not, "Most impressive, Master Kenobi. I trust you were paying attention, Padawan Ansa."

Aliette very pointedly did not make eye contact. "Only fools ignore a lesson given by their teachers," she replied neutrally.

"The Count must have been busy the day they were teaching about moral integrity." She barely hid the smile the tried to blossom at Skywalker's sharp tongue, picking up smoothly from an opening the Pantoran had unwittingly supplied. It may have been stupid, but it lifted her spirits and made her feel included. From the corner of her eye she caught her Master's beard twisting crescent-ways.

The girl cleared her throat. "The most congestion is in the right passage ahead, but the left isn't empty."

"Can you tell how many there are?" Skywalker asked. She couldn't be sure if it was simply for the sake of not being caught or if he was gauging her skill.

Aliette shook her head. "I'm not quite that good, sorry. Master Che would be able to tell you how many hairs were on their head."

"Master Che is unavailable," Master Kenobi intoned, turning them down the path she indicated. "We have you."

She was sure it was meant to be at least a little bit of a compliment, but it only made her drop her chin, ashamed she wasn't up to the snuff of a Jedi she had spent so many years at the elbow of.

They managed to avoid being seen for longer than the last time, the quips between the humans never ending. The longer they went on, the more at ease Aliette felt. It got to the point where it was only by biting her tongue that she kept her own jabs glued to her teeth.

She didn't want to interrupt the rapport between Skywalker and Master Kenobi.

Aliette was forcefully broken out of her musings when an alarm started shrieking above their heads.

"We're tanned," she hissed under her breath as they started running, Dooku pulling down a set of crates behind them to cut off their pursuers.

Skywalker made a funny sound in the back of his mouth. "We had the same saying on Tatooine."

Aliette's brows pinched and the pair of Kenobi Padawan's exchanged bewildered looks. Some slang was universal, literally, but that was something she'd only ever heard on her native world.

A door was kicked open and they burst out, into blessed sunlight. Hope sang in her frigid veins.

Skywalker snatched up a long metal pole and they raced forwards, the 'Elderly Gentleman' having no trouble keeping up with the younger generations. Aliette braced herself for it but the yank of movement on her cuffs, ripping at her wrists, arms, shoulders, was enough to force a startled rush of air throught her teeth as her feet lifted off the ground.

They had miscalculated, she could tell as soon as they lifted into the air. The Force swirled around her, and her realization jolted through the Bond, only to be met by the same one coming from her Master. Her feet moved, as if to land on a platform that was not there. Energy rolled beneath the soft soles of her boots, pushing her higher*, as well as her Master and Dooku, who had reacted the same. Faster. Skywalker shoved off his own, but his was stronger than any of theirs, sending him up, the only one of them that gravity permitted to latch onto the top of the wall.

With four people attached to him he didn't have a chance.

They fell, in a string of flailing limbs and raised voices.

With a shoulder shrieking and lungs burning for air Aliette looked up the blaster aimed at her nose, into the eyes of a vegan pirate. The world was trying to spin around her but she pulled the Force into her body, holding it there to steady herself. It flowed through her much easier than air did.

Once again, they were marched back to their cell. The Hope had drained out of her limbs.

When they unchained the four of them upon arrival she knew that something had changed this time. That things were going to get worse. Things were always worse when you were separated from your friends. Or allies.

As soon as the door closed two Jedi and a Padawan sunk to the ground, the eldest with his legs crossed and the other two on their knees. Dooku chose to lean on the wall.

The girl had already reset her shoulder by then, and so held her hands palm up to Skywalker. Blue eyes met gold, narrowed in suspicion.

"What are you doing?" he asked wearily. Aliette couldn't help thinking that a stupid question.

"You grabbed the ledge with well over 200 kilos hanging off of you. Your shoulders might be fine but prosthetics aren't made for that kind of strain. It could have ripped apart your muscles or pulled loose capillary beds, or veins," she explained, to which he laid his arm into her hands, "I would like for you to not be hurt, Master Skywalker."

"Er, thanks," he mumbled, watched her hands begin to illuminate with the power of the Force. She let it flow through her, and sink into his skin, lower, deeper, into each layer of muscle, each twist of blood, until it was sparking cheerfully against the electronics attached to his nerves.

Skywalker's face scrunched up.

"Normally when I get hurt the Healers just toss me into Bacta," he observed. Alietted inclined her shoulders to the man.

"Bacta is easier, especially with the kind of whole body injuries it takes to get you to take a visit to the Hall of Healings," there was an undercurrent of scolding that slipped through her teeth, in time with the low pulses that she pushed in to fix the strain inside the man.

Anakin very pointedly did not look at her.

Master Kenobi smiled at his former students expense. "Would you mind looking at my back when you're finished with him? Something jolted when we landed, I would rather it not do any further damage."

Aliette nodded quickly, smiling at her Master. She adored being useful, especially when it was something she knew how to do. Healing.

"Of course. If your pride wasn't bruised to heavily I can even look you over, Count," she offered politely. It took her a moment to realize exactly what she had said. Not the offer. That was perfectly intended.

The jibe.

There was a thrum of approval that sparked across Skywalkers skin, and low hum of amusements that came through her Bond with her Master.

They were contagious!

Dooku turned up his nose to her and looked to the window. He reminded her of a caged cat. Noble and proud, tail lashing with fury at his confinement.

While Aliette moved to lay her palms across her Masters back, the humans started to speak again.

"We have to get out of here before Senator Kharrus and Jar Jar arrive, or we'll look like fools," her Master proclaimed. Aliette was bewildered. That was the part he worried most about? How they looked? She wasn't sure of that counted as Foolishness of Vanity.

She shook her head quickly. No, it was not her place to judge her Master. He knew what was important.

Probably.

Skywalker rose, every inch of him pushing out a Center of Aggression that made the girls skin crawl. Jedi were meant to be Peaceful. Not that

"I think it's time we lose the dead weight," he declared, the daggers in his eyes pinning around Dooku.

Not a one made a hit for just as quickly the Count countered with a low sneer. Her Master pulled away to put himself between the pair, ever the Negotiator, his former students name falling from his mouth with a low warning.

Before a fight could break out the door slid open, allowing a few pirates in that she didn't recognize by name, or face. All wielding blasters, of course.

"You two," the lead declared, pointing to Skywalker and Master Kenobi, "Come with us."

Aliette drew up. Fear wrapped around her heart. What was going on now?

They grabbed the bindings of the two humans and started pulling them to the door, heedless of her Masters objections and inquiries. 'What about my Padawan? Where are we going now?' and so one.

She stared as the door shut behind the pair, cutting off the view of the men looking back at her.

Her hands folded in her lap. Still, they did not shake.

"You certainly found yourself an interesting Master. A bit late for you to be a Padawan though, isn't it?" Dooku's words had always been aristocratic, even when she had barely understood them, her ears half frozen and filled with the ringing of a concussion, so many years ago.

She didn't rise to the challenge. Didn't take the bait.

Instead she said, "You gave away Komari's blades." She felt rather than saw him stiffen against the wall, a tension pulling his shoulders together. She went on, "If it had been Qui Gon Jinn's, would you have tossed them to the first assassin you found with the Force in their eyes?"

"Qui Gon was not a failure as apprentice," his normally measured words had taken on an undercurrent like a blade pushing through silk.

Aliette closed her eyes and tried to release the sudden wave of Defensive and Anger that rushed through her veins.

"You respected Komari more than anyone else in our Order," she replied. She would have said more if her Bond with Master Kenobi hadn't been locked short, out of nowhere, proceeded by Aggravation and Worry.

Something was very, very wrong.

"Did they tell you why she denied Knighthood?" Dooku queried, stepping around in front of the girl. He towered over her, whether she was sitting or standing. A King, Noble and Proud.

She took a breath. "She loved you." She had known before the Council had, she was fairly certain. Komari had spent what little personal time she had with the Then-Initiate. She was the closest thing Aliette had to a sister.

"Yes, and for that _crime_ she was cast aside, thrown to a suicide mission that toned her Fall to Darkness." It wasn't until then that Aliette had ever considered that, even if he did not love the girl the way she did him, he had cared for apprentice. For both of them. She knew, logically, but after he was Lost she had been lost herself, in the coattails and the shadow of the fallen pair.

Something else he said closed her throat. Froze the already frigid blood in her veins.

A cruel smile carved into the Count's regal features.

"That's right, the Jedi Order never went after their corpses, did they? No one there knew what happened. None of your _precious_ Council knew that she was captures, not killed. Tortured, taken apart and shattered until the Dark Side swallowed her up."

Images flashed in her mind. Imagines or picture planted there. She didn't know. Komari. Screaming. Begging. Bleeding, everywhere. Strapped down. Shoved in water. Poked, prodded, _flayed_.

"Liar," she accused. The word was chipped with the ice in her blood.

Dooku took a step so close it was almost on her skirt. "Komari had Fallen before I did, and the Jedi did nothing to stop it."

Her eyes stayed locked on his knees. How many years had it been since she had cried?

"Neither did you."

She would not start again today.

"Passed tense," the girl continued. Very slowly she rose, her eyes lifting to meet the counts. Brown that she had once found so much comfort within. Brown that had saved her from a sea of frosted gold.

"When did she die, Count?"

He held her gaze without flinching. "I snapped her neck ten years ago, on the Moon of the Dead."

The name was unfamiliar.

The lights went out. Aliette looked past the Count when he turn to the door.

"Good bye, Padawan Ansa," he offered a narrowed, triumphant smile, already moving to Force slide their way out to a very confused pirate.

Aliette could find nothing to say.

* * *

*Think video game double jump.


	11. Chapter 11

**So I've never written for a Gungan before so this will be… interesting. Wish me luck. Also, this is something of a short filler chapter before a lot of big stuff happens in the next one.  
**

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 **Guest from May 1st: Oh my god. Brute Force. I am so disappointed in myself.**

 **Guest from May 2nd: Here it is!**

 **TGP212th: I really like your name, so late is just fine^^ I'm glad that you appreciate it, I've been trying really hard on this story. Hence why I've taken so long with this chapter.**

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* * *

With the lights out it was easy for the girl to slip around the compound, out of sight and out of mind. The pirates were too busy scrambling to get the power back on to notice her.

She did not follow the trail of destruction that Dooku left.

Aliette was long beyond following that man anywhere. Once, she would have trailed at the edge of his robe, all bright eyes and eager smiles. Dooku and Komari were her saviors and she would have done anything for them, all they needed do was ask, or even imply that something would make them happy.

Those days were long passed.

She missed them sometimes. All the time. When the master swordsman would correct her stance, when the Padawan would trust her to block and dodge blows that should have been beyond her age.

She missed them.

Aliette pushed tears away from her eyes, wished she could use them to fill the space in her freshly broken heart. It was stupid. Komari had been dead for years, and Dooku a traitor for nearly as long. So why was this so much worse?

The girl walked through the compound, moving the Force around her in a way that she had always done. Wrapped herself in it like a cloak that let others perceptions slide off of her like water. This Force Cloak, so to speak, had kept her alive for so many years. So many long, frozen nights, so many burning frosted days. While others were licked with leather and wood she was running, unseen by others.

Invisible.

A gust of frost bitten thievery.

Sometimes, after Komari's death and Dooku's fall, she had considered leaving. When it was clear that she was never becoming a Padawan she had taken steps down the Temple path. She had almost left entirely.

It was fear that held her back. The terror of the streets and what awaited Aliette should she return to them.

Now she wondered if it had been something else. Something other than fear. Perhaps it had been the Force that stopped her steps. That turned her from the wide spread of Coruscant back to the winding halls of the Temple.

The Pantoran breathed in, letting the Force guide her once again, this time through the hall ways and to her Master. That was the past.

This time, she had a future.

* * *

Representative Binks was not what Aliette expected a politician to be like. He was chipper and overly excited, a bit like a child. One with a jinx put on him.

Aliette slipped away from a far flung limb he accidently sent towards her face in the middle of tripped across the passage of the ship they were using to escape. Skywalker caught him with practiced ease and sent him on his way. He was friendly, and apparently knew both Master Kenobi and Skywalker very well.

The familiarity with which he treated them was a reminder of all the years that the two humans had spent together.

Aliette hated herself for the knife it twisted in her chest.

Envy was not becoming for a Jedi.

" _I'm not a Jedi yet."_ Why had she said that? What was the point in it? To claim a distance she knew to be true? To put a chasm between her and those she was so desperate to become one of?

It was the truth, as much as she disliked it.

Between their comradery of the Gungan and the new knowledge swimming around inside her head Aliette had pushed herself into a corner to stare out at the trio. The clones that Representative Binks had brought with him milled around their stolen transport, checking and double checking, collecting a myriad of weapons left behind by the pirates. She didn't have her lightsaber, so the Pantoran left a little blaster sitting by her seat.

She doubted she would ever use it.

"Ali!"

Gold eyes darted up to the aquatic creature before her, who was smiling brightly down at the girl.

"Representative Binks," she greeted politely, "Can I help you with something?" She didn't understand his need to give people nicknames. 'Obi', 'Ani', and now 'Ali'. They had barely met and he was already referring to her with more familiarity than her own Clan Mates ever had.

"Yousa should come 'in sit with the rest of us," he declared, pointing to her Master and Skywalker. Aliette looked between the three before she smiled a bit. It was nice to be included. Somehow it hadn't even occurred to her that she could intrude upon a reunion of old friends.

"Thank you," she demurred as she moved from the corner to sit across from the pair of Jedi. Representative Binks nearly took her head off when he dropped in next to her with a great deal less grace than the Pantoran had.

"You have been very quiet since we left," her Master observed, "Is everything alright?"

Aliette twirled her braid around idly, thinking over her answer before she gave it. She had forgotten that with their Bond Master Kenobi had most likely sensed most of her unease and anxiety, her confliction. With her mind shifting to that she left the feeling of their Bond flow over her.

Worry.

Guilt turned in her chest and the girl bowed her head. She had been so caught up in herself that she hadn't even noticed her Master's Concern for her.

"I am fine, Master. I was caught up with everything that happened. This was first time I've seen Dooku since he left the order," she explained.

"That's right," her Master stroked his beard absently, "He was the one that delivered you to the temple, wasn't he?" His observation startled her. She hadn't known that he paid that much attention when she was young. She remembered him, and Qui Gon, if only because the latter was around Dooku and Komari most of the time.

With Skywalker scrutinizing her Aliette nodded.

"Yes. He and Komari found me on Pantora when I was young," she confirmed. She tugged on her braid again. Did he know that Komari had Fallen? Did anyone?

Were she and Dooku alone in that knowledge?

" _Dooku_ brought you?" There was a good amount of disbelief in Skywalker's voice. Aliette frowned at him. She still stung with betrayal but there was a part of her that demanded she defend the kindness that had saved her life.

"There was a time when Dooku was a member of the Order, Master Skywalker. He hasn't always been so…"

"Crazy? Evil?" Skywalker prompted.

Aliette pursed her lips. " _Disillusioned_."

Master Kenobi piped up, "He is the one that trained my own Master Qui Gon. If not for that, Anakin, not one of us would be Jedi today."

The younger human didn't seem entirely convinced, but he let it go with a grunt and a shrug, typical of his species. Or so Aliette had observed from many years watching and caring for them. Human Males were strange. They acted as if they felt little, yet their Center's were as open as any other to Pantorans. The only exception Aliette had ever found to this rule was Dooku himself, and that was only during their last encounter.

"Before she was denied Knighthood," Aliette heard herself speak once more, "Komari offered to be my Master when she lost her Braid."

Anakin looked puzzled. "Why was she denied?" he questioned.

"Komari was," Again she searched for the right word, "Passionate. In ways that the Order finds unacceptable. She was Battle Hungry, and driven by Love. The Council could not allow her to join the ranks of Knights." Aliette carefully masked whatever bitterness she might have felt towards the decision. It was not hers to make. The Council had done what was best. They always did.

"Because she loved?" There was something Incredulous in Skywalker. Aliette couldn't imagine why he was like that. He was a Jedi Knight, full and truly. He should know the rules better than anyone else in the galaxy.

"Was _In_ Love," she corrected lightly.

"With Dooku himself, if I'm not mistaken," her own Master added.

Skywalkers face twisted with disgust. After what she had learned that day, Aliette no longer blamed him. She was conflicted. Angry and Hurt. She needed time to process this.

Time that it seemed that they did not have.

Master Kenobi's comm link went off, flashing brightly before he answered it with an inquiring, "Kenobi."

The voice of Master Mace Windu echoed across lightyears to their ears.

"Return to the Temple. We have another missions for you and your students."

Aliette exchanged a befuddled glance with Skywalker. Nothing about that sounded Enjoyable.

* * *

Skywalker and Kenobi looked like their heads had been swallowed by a giant ball of fur.

Aliette stood with her squad, between Jester and Chopper, trying not to laugh at their new fur coats. Even the Clones looked less ridiculous than the pair of them, in heat suits and long masks that extended from their new helmets in a sort of hood.

Out of all of them Aliette was least heavily dressed. She had traded her shirt for pants, donned cloves, and pulled on a cloak that barely brushed her elbows. She was built for the cold, and had no need for multiple layers in the environment they were about to enter.

The environment of the transport ship was something else entirely. She thought she would die if she stayed there for even another minute.

She was in luck. The ship came to a shuddering stop as it docked on the Pantoran cruiser, trembling briefly before the lights brightened and the door peeled itself apart. Her Master took the lead, followed by former apprentice. Aliette came out third, her troops trailing behind her.

She wished that Ahsoka had come along, but the young Padawan had lessons at the Temple that she needed attend. There was no doubt that the Togruta would have loved to go on a mission, all four of them together. She was wild and fee, a snow flake in the wind.

If snowflakes would tear an entire battalion of droids apart on their own.

Aliette smiled fondly at the thought before smoothing her features and rolling her shoulders back, lifting her chin to try and look more Self-Assured than she felt right then. This would be the first time she saw another Pantoran since joining the Order.

She was not the only one to be a Member, to be sure. There was Tatsu Chichu, a few years younger than she, and Ifor Sosari and Tegan Chichu, both full Knights of the Order in charge of their own troops. The Clan Chichu had proven itself strong in Force Adepts.

In all truth it was a surprise that there was not more Pantoran's that were within their ranks. All held a natural, low level Force Sensitivity that connected them and was the source of Centers and the culture that revolved around them.

Aliette supposed she was lucky such was not the case. Or she would have had much more difficulty avoiding her People.

Jester fell in closer to her side, close enough that she and only she would hear when he spoke.

"Is something the matter Commander?" he quizzed.

Aliette pursed her lips and looked around at the blue faces around them, marked up with yellow all.

"We shall see. "

The clones fell back as the Jedi and Padawan neared a congregation of straight backed Pantoran's. Two of them were of the Guard, their yellow Marking them to be Brothers of the Ceri. Another was a female, no taller than Aliette herself, of Clan Chuchi.

The tall man in front wore Pride as a cloak, along with the one that swept that back of his boots. There was no mistaking the man who had been Chairmen since before she was born.

Chi Cho, head of the Clan Cho, son of the Ceri, looked down his nose at her Master when he introduced himself. Aliette had to fight to hold her Center of Tranquility over an undercurrent of Defense. She could feel her men shift behind her. Whether they were picking up on her feelings or felt similarly the need to step in was unknown.

"You are the ones the Order sent to us?" he demanded, every inch in command. There was too much Aggression in him for Aliette to feel at all at Ease.

The Lady Chuchi peered around him, towards the new comers. Her Center spoke clearly. There was Peace alongside a sliver of Uncertainty. She seemed, if not Timid, at least Cowed by the Chairman. Aliette did not blame her all.

"We are," Master Kenobi agreed, "I am Jedi Master Obi Wan Kenobi, this is Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, and my own Padawan, Aliette Ansa."

All eyes snapped to her. The soldiers remained totally straight, their posture betraying nothing. Only Duty and Focus held on to them. Chuchi shifted to Curious.

Chi Cho's haughty Chutzpah only grew at his shoulders drew together.

"Uwane Tunhara, tsi khezu chen bek. Aliette," he bit the words out at her, pushing her eyes lower. Confusion rolled across the humans around them, accompanied by Chuchi's own Surprise.

"Hey," Skywalker cut in, "What was that?" he demanded. The metal tapping of C3PO alerted Aliette to the droid hurrying behind them off the ship. He had been squashed in a corner before, and absent when the humans could have used him. She appreciated it now. They didn't need to worry about this.

"Nothing of your concern," the Chairman declared. "We have more pressing matters to attend to than the company Jedi keep."

"Aliette is my Padawan. My student. She is as much as Jedi as we are."

Gold eyes snapped to her Master from all sides. She had never heard him defend her so readily before. It brought warms through her, lifting her mouth and her chin from where it had begun to lower. He may not know what he was defending her against, but he was still her Master.

"Thank you, Master," she touched his elbow, "But the Chairman is right. We are here for a reason."

She had only fed his power, she knew, but it wasn't as though anything she did would change how he thought of her. When he pushed passed them to the transport she was quick to get out of his, and his parties, way. She had no intention of letting him get an elbow anywhere near her bare cheeks.

Her, or any of the others.

The two humans Jedi were still frowning when they followed after, Aliette on their heels. It made her feel good to know that they cared. Almost made up for the reminder of what she was.

Standing above her place.


	12. Chapter 12

**For the Pantoran language I kinda just spit some words out. According to google translate they're just gibberish, so I'm not stealing anyone's actual language as far as I know.**

 **Reviews;**

 **TGP212th:You're very welcome. Thank you for your support. I will try not to keep you waiting too awful long though.**

 **JaDe In NighT: Not really? The episodes (in chronological order) that I jumped over wouldn't have really involved her so... You'll find that out at the end of this chapter, actually.**

 **QueenNagaina: Thank you, I have definitely not given up.**

 **artistgirl16: Obi Wan is the absolute best, I will fight for him.**

 **ScarletFishcakes: I'll try to keep filling you with joy even in the sad chapters! You're super sweet.**

 **Guest from May 28th: It's kind of habit actually?**

 **cozzizzie: You are very welcome! With any luck this chapter is just as good!**

* * *

Death choked her.

It wrapped itself around her throat and pulled her heart up into it, dragging it close to her jaw. All around her in a field of white, crushed armor splattered with the frozen blood of the dead. Troopers littered the control room, draped across panels and twisted across each other's stiff limbs.

They had been murdered.

Aliette knew, could feel through the Force cast out around her, that there no survivors in the room. The only clones that still lived were the ones that she had brought with her in the investigation. There would be time to mourn them later, for now they needed to identify the dead.

Aliette helped her troops sort through with Rex and few from the 501st. She had chosen her squad to bring along, and Rex had brought with him a handful of his own. Six squads, three from each of their companies, had been dragged into the howling wind of Orto Plutonia after the vanished dozens that had stopped responding to their calls to the surface.

"How many are there?"

The soft voice of the Lady Chuchi, revealed to be Senator Riyo of, came from the entrance to the control room. Aliette looked up from where she'd been IDing a fallen clone, CT-1154. Blithe.

It took her a moment to find her voice, eyes locked on the two gold markings that added to the senators cheeks. Riyo Chuchi was a very powerful Pantoran, for all she deferred instantaneously to the Chairman.

"Too many," the words came quieter than Aliette would have willingly admitted. Riyo's eyes locked on her before her chin twitched upwards, the muscles in her neck tightened. The Senator's Center shifted from Discontent and Concern to something with a sliver of Pride, though it seemed to Aliette some how False. In time, Aliette's dropped down, her Center falling to Difference. She saw Punch and Jester exchange looks over the body of Rail.

Behind Chuchi, Cho came striding in with the command of a man with fewer lines than he had. The Ceri brothers, one face so familiar it made her chest grow tight, followed after him. They were proud and tall, towering over the crouched Aliette.

She busied herself with another body.

"Scrounging in corpses?" one of the Ceri queried, a low mock in his voice. In the corner Chopper and Gus bristled, both took a step towards the three Pantorans. His brother elbowed him, causing his teeth to click together before his eyes, the exact shade of gold as Aliette's, found someone else to look at. Perhaps it was that similarity that kept made him deign speaking to her in the first place.

"Aliette," her Master called, tipping his head into the room to find his Padawan. She ignored the scoff from Chairman Cho.

"Yes, Master?" She asked, pushing herself to her full height. She was barely as tall as the senator herself.

"What do you make of all this?" he asked, implicating the carnage that now surrounded them. She and the men had begun to sort the bodies by their squads, to make IDing easier for all of them, physically. Emotionally there was a grim darkness that clung to the pure white landscape.

"This is obviously the work of Seperatists."

The words were spit out from her right, curtesy of Chairman Cho. Aliette hadn't even been able to give her report.

Her teeth clicked together, irritation bubbled under her skin until she let it go, released her emotions into the Force where they would do her, and all around her, no harm.

They were called here by the Chairman, the forts were set up at his request, if he thought it was the separatists he was entitled to that.

Even if he was dead wrong.

"I'm not so sure," said her Master, who possessed a brain. "No one has touched these computers."

"Sir," Rex announced his arrival as he came in, "Scouts spotted a Separatist Base across the ridge."

Her Master's face went Grim. He turned to her and she stood up a bit straighter, chin lifting up. A job, perhaps. She would like a task.

"Anakin and I shall go investigate this Base," he declared, "Stay here with the men from the 212th and make sure that the Senator and the Chairman remain safe."

Chairman Cho snorted his disdain for his idea. Aliette swallowed back her Defense. A ghost of a smile appeared on her Master's face when he felt it through their Bond. She was given an answering touch of Flattery that she would jump so quickly for him.

Aliette, instead of biting arguments out, bowed Humbly a few degrees. "As you say, Master."

She may not be the biggest fan of Pantora, but she would protect these people with her life, if it came to that. Only because her Master had asked and her Vows demanded it.

As she waved farewell to the exploratory party that the 501st was taking on the Force whispered into her blood, plucked at her bones. It nudged her in the direction of something she didn't know yet. A glance at the others revealed that they were busy unpacking and securing everything.

She should stay with her men, whom she was in Command of, but with the Chairman there there wasn't much Commanding she could be doing in any case. He had quickly taken charge.

Aliette knew that leaving was a bad idea but the Force called soft words to her, tugging her hair with the wind and dragging her Cape across her shoulders. She was needed elsewhere.

With as much confidence as she could muster Aliette announced she was running one last Perimeter Check and confiscated a Freeco Bike.

* * *

"Hey you, droid!" Gus's voice cut through the wind of the snowy planet, blown in through a destroyed window in the outpost. It had taken half an hour to find the gold translator, even with all five of them looking for it.

The droid, C3PA, or something, turned around, its arms stiff and bent halfway.

"Yes, how can I be of assistance?" he asked, his high voice pronounced with precision.

"We want you to translate for us," Chopper declared from Gus's right. Jester and Punch flanked him to the left, and Sketch took up the rear. It was a lopsided diamond formation, since none of them were took the middle.

Sketch moved through them, the best with Tech, and flipped a few buttons on his wrist until the words that his bucket had recorded earlier in the day. The voice of Chairman Chi Cho echoed around them. Spitting words out again.

"Uwane Tunhara, tsi khezu chen bek. Aliette."

"Oh, my," the droid's surprise was warranted, as was the anger that rolled through all five clones when he made his translation.

"He said, 'Disgusting child, standing above your place. Aliette.'," the droid reported. Punch looked like he was about to live up to his name sake when Sketch caught him around the elbow, keeping him in place.

"He can't talk about the Commander like that," Chopper snapped, baring his teeth. His ruined eye glared harshly around them, down to where the Pantorans were gathered, save their leader.

It was Jester, ever the voice of reason, that prompted, "Why did he call her that?"

The group exchanged looks with each other.

"We could always ask her," Sketch put forth, tilting his head towards where they knew she was. Gus wasn't sure how, some Jedi trick probably, but all of them seemed to know instinctively where to find their CO. Whatever it was, it made it easier for them to go find her.

When they did, she was holding a holo pad, flicking through it. It wasn't hard to see carved in lines in her face, turning her normally kind, serene expression twisted into melancholy. Grief.

"Commander?" Punch threw his voice out, lifting the Jedi's chin. Her gold eyes levelled onto them, sorrow sallowing their depths. Unease turned across their skin, drawing their mouths into near identical lines.

"Yes?" she asked, tucking the pad to her stomach. It slipped partially into the thin cloak that she wore.

Gus was momentarily envious of her. Even in the heat producing under suit he had gotten and the insulating additions to his armor he was uncomfortable where the joints bit and cold where the heat didn't quite reach. They were the opposite of their tiny commander, who had barely put on extra layers for the frozen tundra that crafter the planet they stood upon.

"Is something the matter?" Sketch inquired first, before the rest could.

Gus blurted, "You looks sad."

He surprised them all.

"It's- I found a memoire of a trooper that was killed here," she held up the holo pad again, showing them the written Basic on the screen. It looked like a letter. "He was writing to a brother of his. He died mid-through."

"What are you going to do with that?" Gus asked. His shoulders straightened when her eyes focused solely on him. They stayed there for a moment only before wandering to a shattered window.

"I'm not sure. Not yet," her thumb rolled across a corner, smoothing the frost lined metal. Her gloves were so thing her fingers still looked slim.

Gus looked back at the others, then at his Commander again. She was already mourning someone she had never known. Would their question help or hinder? Punch made a jerk at her with his chin, drawing the Commanders attention back from wherever it had wandered. Whatever she was thinking.

"Is there something you all needed?" she quizzed, lowering the pad until it vanished in the folds of her short cape.

Gus seemed to be the only one who talked to her regularly. Disrespectfully, more like.

"Why did the Chairman say you were 'standing above your place'?" he asked outright. When her shoulders drew together and her eyes grew wide he wondered if he'd stepped to far this time. If she might actually discipline his insolence in the way that she never had the guts to before.

The Commander licked her lips before looking over their shoulders the way Jester tended to.

"That is… complicated," she said slowly.

It was Chopper that said, "He said your name weird."

A smile crossed her face, bitter and sardonic. She sat against one of the tables in the room and motioned for the men to join her. Which they did, one by one. Gus last.

"Names are important to you."

It wasn't a question but all nodded. There was a soft scuff from the hallway. They weren't alone.

"They are important to Pantoran's as well. So important… On Pantora you either belong to a clan or you're nameless gutter trash," Commander Ansa touched her chest. "Case in point."

"You have a name," he cut in, frowning at her. Aliette Ansa, Padawan Learner.

Her voice grew rougher. "Hardly. Aliette is no more a name than your numbers are. It isn't a name at all, not anymore. Once it was, now it is what the disgraced are called. The Undesired. It is practically synonymous with Orphan. It is given only to those who have no family. No Clan Name to call their own."

"What about Ansa?" Gut contradicted once more. If they weren't nodding with him Gus was sure that they would have punched him for his borderline insubordination.

To his surprise, she truly smiled then. A soft, far away one. "Ansa isn't a name as all. Ansa, it was given to me when I was taken to the temple, after a sign in the port they found me at," she repeated, a third time, "Ansa. Do you know what that means?" She waited until they shook their heads slowly. "It means Slick."

Gus's guts dropped hard to the ground. That was impossible.

"That is my name. Aliatte Ansa, The Slick Orphan."


	13. Chapter 13

"I want those weapons back online, now! There's no telling when the Separatists will be back," Chairman Cho ordered from his perch. He stood in a birdnest of a command center with his Ceri Guards, looking down on all of them. Or, all of the clones. He didn't deign to glance at Aliette.

Not that she was complaining. She had no interest in speaking to him, she was more concerned with keeping watch. The Padawan sat with her legs crossed, on top of an already repaired computer module, her eyes fixed on the snowy landscape below them. Watching. Waiting. The Force moved across the planet as pure as the snow, untouched by tainted lived.

It was a breath of fresh air compared to the stifling aura that surrounded the Chairman.

The Lady Chuchi had pulled away from the window that she had similarly been staring out, though hers had been less of a Watch and more of a Meditation.

"What makes you think that it's the Separatists?" the young Senator inquired, turning her face up to the man above her. Aliette was surprised to hear her question the older man at all. She had thought the Senator too Peaceful and Timorous for that. She was clearly wrong.

"Look around you," the man demanded, Arrogance and Irritation rolling out of his Center. Aliette felt the need to step to her Defense, and from the stillness in her squads shoulders, they felt the same.

 _Yes_ , she thought, _look around you. Look at the spears and the blood. Look at the fur on the floor. Look at the blaster marks._

Eyes were locked on the Chairman. Gold and brown. The whole room was set on edge.

"Isn't this carnage enough proof for you," Chairman snipped, gesturing around them. Aliette felt her men bristle. She felt it through them, the Offense, the Irritation. The Anger.

He was speaking for the dead that were not his, who he did not care enough about to look past his own predisposed assumptions. A sliver of Anger slid into her own Center.

It was eased when the Lady Chuchi stepped towards the Chairman.

"But there are no dead droids, no blast marks, the clones injuries were not consistent with what-"

"You're an expert on war now, are you Senator?" the Chairman's voice was harsh, forcing her head bowed. Aliette moved without thinking, sliding between the Cowed Lady and the Sharp Chairman.

"She is more of one than you are," the near Savagery she gripped with her teeth was enough for the Chairman to draw away, if only for an instant. "You see what you want to see to further your own-"

"You dare speak that way! You are no Jedi, no Pantoran," he advanced upon her, his long legs carrying him until he was towering above her and the Lady Chuchi. Every clone in the room stiffened. Fingers twitched for blasters.

Aliette's knees locked. Her hands stayed perfectly still.

"I am a Padawan in the name of the Order, a Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic," her voice was too soft. She let herself lean a half centimeter away.

The Chairman's eyes flashed, ice in the dead light of the artificial space.

"You are _Aliette_ ," he slapped her with the words. Her eyes darted downward. His chin lifted and he turned from her, victorious. "And _you_ , Senator, let me tell you something," he turned to the other young woman, who couldn't be much older than Aliette. Sketch touched her elbow when he drew nearer, his eyes narrowed at the back of the Chairman.

"I have led our people since before you were born. I have seen a hundred planets rise and fall through the force of arms. If it's not the Separatists out there then it's an aggressive and malevolent entity nonetheless, and I will not let whoever it is jeopardize the security of the people of Pantora!"

He swept away from the Padawan, leading the Senator away. The Lady Chuchi glanced at her as she passed, Concern drawn across her brow.

"Chairman, if the Separatists aren't behind this, then perhaps there is a peaceful solution," she put forth, following him only to the door. He stared at her with Scorn.

"Senator, I am willing to fight and die for my people. It is time to ask yourself if _you_ are brave enough to do the same."

He walked right out, leaving clones ready for a fight and two Pantorans standing in silence.

Aliette moved, slowly, stopping at the Lady Chuchi's elbow.

"If there is a peaceful solution, We will help you find it," she vowed, indicating her troops. The Lady turned to look around them, at the troopers who all stood with Loyalty and Duty muffling their Fury at the Chairman.

She turned back to Aliette and dipped her head, to her and all the men at her back.

"Thank you, Padawan Ansa," she said, her Genuine voice quiet. Aliette stood still for a lpong moment, eyes wider.

She had never had a Pantoran lower themself to her.

* * *

"She doesn't like her name."

Punch looked over at Sketch from where he was trying to wrestle a dented panal away from the wall so could get to the wiring. The Pantorans could take the cold, but for the Clone's they only had their heat suits, and those would run out of a charge eventually. They needed to get the heat working again.

Gus snorted from where he was sorting through the tools they'd managed to find. "I don't like her name either. _Slick_!" he hissed the name like a curse.

"She's not Slick," Chopper said immediately, stepping towards their former Second. He was attached to the girl. He was ready to fight his own brothers for her after such a short amount of time.

"I know, but I don't want to call her that now," Gus retorted. His temper had started to cool lately. Punch blamed it on their Commander.

"Then why don't we call her something else?"

"Jester?" Punch asked. He was usually pretty quiet, but now he spoke, softer than the rest of them but steadier than he'd been in months. He shifted, looking over Punch's shoulder.

"I had an idea earlier," he explained, "and I went to ask around."

"Ask about what?" Gus frowned at him and Jester shrugged awkwardly.

"Nicknames. Aliette. Lita sounds pretty close, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess so..." Gus tilted his head around the way he did when, "Why'd you pick that?" he asked at last.

"And Lita means someone you can rely on," Jester added. At their questioning looks he went on, "I asked some of the guards that came with the Senator."

The lot of them looked at each other. A smile lifted Punch's mouth.

"It's perfect."

* * *

Aliette had already decided that she cared little for the Chairman of Pantora. She did not hate him, of course. She had given up the right to that ability years ago, when she had stepped into the hands of the order, into the arms of Komari.

She came very close to hating him though.

She came close to hating him when he demanded they ambush a people who wanted nothing but peace. She came close to hating him when he declared war.

She teetered dangerously on the edge of hating him when he got Bite and Teller injured. When he got Burner, Sander, Chuck, Still, Track, Seemore, Nova, Zinc, Quince, Coal, and Scribe killed.

But still she fell to her knees at his side, snow swirling around her fingers before they dipped into the blood on his back, dripping in from the wound of a spear. It had gone through his back, and into the front of his chest cavity, puncturing a lung and breaking three ribs. He was dying.

Aliette took a breath and called the Force to her but her concentration was broken when her cheek burned and her head snapped to the side. She was stunned.

"Do not touch me, _Aliette_ ," the Chairman snapped, "Senator," he turned his head. His breathing was harsh. His hands were shaking, "Senator Chuchi!"

The young woman dropped to his side while Aliette drew away, touching her cheek where he had slapped her. She was amazed he had enough strength left in his dying body to do that.

He clutched at the lady Chuchi, hissing words of Hate and Vengeance on a people who had asked for nothing but Peace. She pushed his hand off of her shoulder and in her face Aliette could see the drawing of great Strength, and Compassion.

When he started to fall forwards that Padawan could do nothing. He did not want her help, and so she gave none. Even if she had, he was on the doorstep of Death when they arrived. She probably couldn't have helped anyhow.

With a quiet sigh she released her anger into the Force, letting it leave her bones.

In one day Chi Cho had gotten eleven clones and two of his own Clansmen killed, all for nothing. It was a waste of life, and Aliette had little care for those who wasted life. Life was precious and deserved respect and care.

A hand touched her shoulder and Aliette looked up at her Master.

There was a pinch in his brows that she hadn't yet learned the meaning behind. Their Bond twirled with Concern, drawing a smile to her face and drawing her to her feet. Her eyes turned from the Pantoran Guard, to the Clones, to the Talz, taking in the casualties and injuries.

There was work yet to be done.

* * *

The familiarity of the Negotiators med bay was a comfort to her as she finished melding the scratch on Rex's arm.

"Thank you, Commander," he said stifly, and Aliette nodded and turned for her next patient while he went off to join and nervously watching Ahsoka, fresh back from the Temple. The only problem was, she didn't have anymore patients.

Just a gaggle of men, sitting on sick beds attached to the floor. Her men. Her Squad. Her soldiers.

"Is, something the matter?" they didn't look Nervous or Upset or hurt at all.

It was Chopper, who sat a bit away from the rest, who spoke.

"We were thinking, commander. You need a name from us."

"Excuse me?" She found herself staring at them, Stunned. A name? She hadn't been given one of those in over a decade. Not since Komari. Not since she had been pulled away from a iced over sign post on the docks.

"You got a name from your people, one from the Jedi. Now you need one from us," Punch said simply. Like it made any sense at all.

"What did you have in mind?" she asked, Hesitant.

"We were thinking Commander Lita had a nice ring to it," Said Jester. He met her eyes, Hope shining upon him. Lita felt her heart lift. They wanted her to have a name, and for her it was a great gift. For them it was as well. They owned nothing, all of them, except for their names.

She smiled softly at her men.

"Lita sounds wonderful. Thank you."


End file.
